TEEN DRUG USE DECLINING, SURVEY SAYS

As any parent can readily testify, teenagers are naturally rebellious.
This rebellion and quest for independence are manifested in many ways
that are sometimes socially and personally harmful.

A generation ago, one of the most alarming trends was the surge in
illicit drug use and alcohol by American youth. But there is good news
in several reports showing teen drinking and drug use are down
significantly from the height of the drug culture in the 1960s and
1970s. So is teen smoking.

This year, for the first time, teen use of the dangerous club drug
Ecstasy dropped. This encouraging news is contained in this year's
annual Monitoring the Future survey, which tracks substance use among
44,000 8th- 10th- and 12th grade students. The survey, which also
found the use of cigarettes and alcohol on the decline, has been
tracking teen drug use since 1975.

According to the survey, the number of teens who said they had smoked
during 2002 fell by 4 or 5 percentage points from the year before.
That's the biggest drop in recent years.

While parents will no doubt be relieved to see statistics like this,
the declines charted by this latest survey also mean that the lessened
substance abuse by today's teens will likely result in fewer health
problems 20 or 30 years from now.

This year's survey also recorded a sharp drop in the use of Ecstasy, a
powerful stimulant/hallucinogen that the survey has been tracking since 1996.

Social psychologist Lloyd Johnston, the lead investigator of the
survey, attributes that decline to a better understanding of the
dangers of the drug, which may cause brain damage and even death. The
survey found that 52 percent of the students surveyed knew about the
dangers of Ecstasy, compared with 46 percent the year before.

Disturbingly, the survey found that roughly 11 percent of high school
seniors said they had used Ecstasy. While that percentage is
troubling, at least use of this dangerous drug is declining, not
increasing as it has in former years.

The survey also found:

* Marijuana use is down. For example, the annual prevalence of
marijuana use among eighth-graders dropped from a peak of 18 percent
in 1996 to this year's 15 percent.

* Taking acid or LSD declined for all three grade levels.

* Sniffing glue or other inhalants continued to show substantial drops
this year. For example, eighth-grade use declined from 13 percent in
1995 to eight percent in 2002.

* Use of methamphetamines, or speed or crystal meth, dropped among
eighth-graders, but held steady for older teens.

Not all the news from this latest survey is positive. There still has
not been any measurable decline in teen use of heroin, cocaine and
crack - but then, those hard drugs are generally not widely used by
teens. The survey also finds that two drugs showed a slight increase
in use this year: sedatives and tranquilizers.

Still, the overall portrait that emerges from the Monitoring the
Future survey is a hopeful one. While it's clear that a certain
percentage of teens will continue to experiment with drugs, this
latest survey demonstrates that percentage is shrinking, not
expanding. In the often overlooked category of good news, that is welcome.