SMOKING, DRINKING, DRUGS USE DECLINE AMONG U.S. TEENAGERS

A prominent national survey of teenagers' behavior has found that cigarette
smoking among high school seniors has dropped to its lowest level since the
annual tally began in 1975 -- a major victory for antitobacco campaigners,
but one that could eventually ease pressure on cigarette companies to make
further changes in advertising and marketing.

The study, carried out by researchers at the University of Michigan and
released by the National Institute on Drug Addiction, also indicates that
American youths are becoming more abstemious in general.

Teens, increasingly bombarded with ads about the dangers of drugs and
drinking, are consuming less alcohol, marijuana and Ecstasy, a synthetic
drug with both stimulant and hallucinogenic properties.

Cigarette use among teenagers started to climb rapidly in the mid 1990s,
fueling an outcry against tobacco companies, which were attacked for
targeting kids.

This year's "Monitoring the Future" study, as it is known, found that 26.7%
of 12th graders reported smoking in the past month, down 2.8 percentage
points from 2001 and 9.8 percentage points below a 1997 peak of 36.5%.
Younger students' cigarette use also was down markedly; the smoking rate
for eighth graders was 10.7%, down 10.3 percentage points from 1996.

The study also found "significant" decreases in alcohol consumption by
eighth and 10th graders. In addition, fewer students in those two grades
reported having used marijuana in the past 30 days. The only significant
increases in drug use were among 10th graders, more of whom reported using
crack cocaine in the previous 12 months, and 12th graders, who said they
had used sedatives in the past year.

But the starkest change was the sharp decrease in smoking rates. "We are
making unprecedented progress in reducing youth smoking," said William V.
Corr, executive vice president of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, a
Washington based advocacy group. "But we have to sustain our efforts. You
get a new group of kids every year."

As youth smoking falls, cigarette companies stand to lose new customers,
and the trend, if it holds, could accelerate the long term decline in U.S.
cigarette consumption, which is now dropping at between 1% and 2% a year.
But the declines also could help the industry by potentially lessening
pressure for further restrictions on cigarette makers' activities.

Many public health groups have cast their battle against the tobacco
industry as an effort to protect kids rather than as a broader attack on
smoking. The sharp smoking declines found by the survey raise the question
of whether antismoking groups will become victims of their own success at a
time when they are struggling to persuade cash strapped politicians to
invest more in antismoking programs.

The new statistics could lessen the tobacco companies' vulnerability to
charges that they target youths with their marketing. Such charges have
been the most effective weapon wielded against the industry by tobacco
control activists. Cartoon pitchman Joe Camel became a unique symbol,
helping galvanize public opinion and paving the way for lawsuits and
government action against tobacco companies.

Mark Smith, a spokesman for British American Tobacco PLC's Brown &
Williamson unit, says that such big drops in youth smoking "should take off
the pressure that some legislators feel" to raise taxes and pursue other
policies advocated by antismoking activists. He added: "If it seems the
problem is getting better, why continue to put more and more regulations in
place?"

Mr. Corr said he doesn't think the smoking declines will help the cigarette
companies too much politically. "I don't think they're going to get very
far with that," he said, noting that, despite the decreases, more than one
in four high school seniors has still smoked in the past 30 days. "We have
hardly solved the problem," he said.

Tobacco control activists credit a wide range of tactics that have become
more widespread in recent years with helping push the rates down. They
include cigarette tax increases, indoor smoking bans, aggressive
antismoking media campaigns and health education programs.

Cigarette makers' marketing also has been restricted as the result of a
1998 legal settlement between major tobacco companies and 46 states. The
companies, which were already barred from advertising on television and
radio, also agreed to stop using billboards, T shirts and other branded
merchandise and transit ads to promote cigarettes.

Cigarette companies have consistently raised prices both to make their
lofty profit targets and to cover the $206 billion they have promised to
pay the states over 25 years as part of the settlement deal. That, combined
with tax increases, has helped push the retail price of smokes up 90% since
1997. The average retail price nationwide for a pack of premium cigarettes
is about $3.58. In New York City, full price smokes can sometimes sell for
more than $7.50 a pack. And that has helped push down demand for
cigarettes, too.

Twenty one states have moved to raise their levies on cigarettes in the
past year. Mr. Corr's group and other public health organizations are
lobbying for further increases, arguing that the price increases are one of
the most effective ways to discourage teen smoking. Studies show that
teenagers, who have smaller disposable incomes, are more sensitive to
tobacco price rises and are, therefore, more likely to stop smoking or not
start as a result of higher taxes.

Tobacco control advocates also are urging states to spend more money on
tobacco control programs including antismoking advertising, health
education and support for smoking cessation. But, with states facing
growing budget deficits, new antitobacco programs are a hard sell, and some
states that already have them are paring their funding. Massachusetts Gov.
Jane Swift this year slashed the budget for her state's trendsetting
tobacco control program.

Among teen smokers, the most popular brands are Philip Morris Cos.'s
Marlboro and Newport, made by Loews Corp.'s Lorillard Tobacco unit. Studies
in the U.S. have found that if people don't start smoking before the age of
18, it is unlikely that they ever will.