YOUTHS' DRUG ABUSE ROSE SHARPLY IN '01, BUT SMOKING DIPPED

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 nonmedical use of prescription
painkillers and tranquilizers. Only tobacco use declined.

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

"We have sent the wrong message, and we have to correct that," Walters said.

"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 people 12 and older.

The percentage who said they were marijuana users jumped to 5.4 in 2001
from 4.8 in 2000. The numbers had held roughly steady from 1996 to 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 -
about 2.4 million - is down significantly from a mid-'70s peak of 3.2
million, but it's higher than in most of the 1990s.

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 one-third lower than in 1997.

Otherwise, "We lost a lot of ground in the '90's," said Charles Curie,
director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
the HHS agency that sponsors the annual study. He blamed acceptance of pot
and peer pressure for the surge.

"When you start with marijuana, it is easy to get to the next step,"
Thompson said. The administration wants to boost funding to anti-drug
campaigns, community organizations and faith-based groups, he said.

A committee of the Canadian Senate reached the opposite conclusion in
findings disclosed Wednesday. It said marijuana is less harmful than
alcohol and not a "gateway" drug.