U.S. TEENAGERS CATCHING ON

Middle, High Schoolers Show Decline In Use Of Drugs And Alcohol, Study Shows

America's 8th, 10th and 12th graders are smoking less. They are drinking
less. Show them an illicit drug, and larger percentages than in recent
years run in the opposite direction. Such are the happy conclusions of a
study sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the question
is: What went right?

One speculative answer is that something went right because something went
wrong. Two experts are quoted in The New York Times as saying that the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may have caused American youth to become more
serious about their lives, although another expert says evidence for the
theory is lacking.

Maybe, say various observers, teens are getting smarter, thanks at least in
part to programs and advertising pointing out the health consequences of
indulging in cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. It seems to be the case that
teens are using the hallucinogen "ecstasy" less frequently because of a
growing awareness that it can damage the brain, among other devastations,
The Washington Post reports.

A director of the study told the Associated Press, "Smoking makes a
youngster less attractive to the great majority of the opposite sex, just
the opposite of what cigarette advertising has been promising all these years."

Whether American young people are more serious since Sept. 11, 2001, they
are capable of learning if their elders spend enough effort trying to get
their attention. We must continue to teach them that smoking, alcohol and
drugs can put them in a hospital and sometimes in an early grave.

Meanwhile, the young people seem to be teaching each other that smoking can
also leave them dateless on the weekends.