Drug use by young up, says U.S. study

But Tobacco Figure Registers Decline

WASHINGTON - Use of marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs increased
sharply among young Americans last year, according to a new government
survey. The study also found sharp increases in the non-medical use of
prescription painkillers and tranquilizers. Only tobacco use declined.

John Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, attributed the increased marijuana use to "a fundamental
misunderstanding" propagated by the baby boomer generation that marijuana
is safe and should be legal.

"Marijuana is not some harmless chemical toy but a clear and present danger
to the health and well-being of all its users," said Tommy Thompson,
Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The findings, contained in the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug
Abuse, are based on 70,000 interviews with persons ages 12 and older.

The percentage that said they were marijuana users jumped to 5.4 percent in
2001 from 4.8 percent in 2000. The numbers had held roughly steady between
1996 and 2000. Cocaine users jumped to 0.07 percent from 0.05 percent.

The worrisome factor in the marijuana increase, according to Thompson, is a
spurt in first-time users last year, most of them under 18. The number --
2.4 million -- is down significantly from a mid-70s peak of 3.2 million,
but it's higher than during most of the 1990s.

Overall, 15.9 million Americans older than 12 reported using an illicit
drug in the month before being interviewed for the survey. That amounts to
7.1 percent of that population group in 2001 versus 6.3 percent in 2000.
Nearly a fifth of 18- to 25-year-olds said they used illicit drugs.

Among fashionable drugs, use of the hallucinogen Ecstasy and abuse of the
prescription painkiller Oxycontin both have more than tripled since 1998.

The "good news," Thompson said, was a continuing decline in smoking among
12- to 17-year-olds. Their number is about one-third lower than it was in 1997.