STUDY FINDS 18.8% OF YOUNG ADULTS USE DRUGS

Nation/World

WASHINGTON -- America has almost 16 million illegal drug users, including
one in five young adults, according to a government survey that suggests
use of marijuana and cocaine may be on the rise after leveling off in
recent years.

Among ages 12 to 17, the youngest people surveyed, 10.8 percent were
described as current drug users in 2001, up from about 9.7 percent the year
before, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

Young adults ages 18 to 25 were more likely to be users, increasing to 18.8
percent from 15.9 percent in 2000. The rate of drug use among adults 26 and
older stayed about the same, at 4.5 percent. Current users are those who
reported using a drug within the past month.

Although a few drugs, including LSD, are diminishing in popularity, others
are seeing big gains. The number of people who have tried Ecstasy increased
from 6.5 million in 2000 to 8.1 million last year, the survey shows.

Nonmedical use of the pain reliever Oxycontin more than doubled, from
399,000 users in 2000 to 957,000 in 2001.

The survey shows moderate increases in the use of marijuana and cocaine by
teen-agers and young adults from 2000 to 2001. But researchers said it was
too soon to say whether that marks the reversal of a trend of stable or
declining drug use since the late-1990s.

"It could continue up and be the start of a long-term trend, or it could go
down again," said Joe Gfroerer, director of the survey by the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. "We don't try to predict
that."

Other national surveys saw no statistically significant increase in drug
use in 2001, and some even reported declines among young people. The
National Household Survey on Drug Abuse is the largest study, interviewing
almost 69,000 people age 12 or older and including every state.

Timing and different methodologies often result in different results among
surveys.

"Ours is in the spring, theirs is throughout the 12-month period," Dr.
Lloyd Johnston of the University of Michigan, who leads the Monitoring the
Future study.

"By the spring of 2001, we found student drug use was either level, or had
been declining since 1996," Johnston said. "We did show for the young
adults a little increase in 2001 in illicit drug use other than marijuana,
nothing very dramatic."