TEENS SAY MARIJUANA IS EASY TO GET

Responding to Survey, 35 Percent Claim They Could Buy It in Few
Hours

WASHINGTON - Teen-agers say marijuana is easier to buy than cigarettes
or beer - one in three say they can find it in a matter of hours - but
only 25 percent admit trying it, a national survey finds.

When the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse polled 1,000
teens last winter, 27 percent said they could buy marijuana in an hour
or less; an additional 8 percent said it would take a few hours. But
for the first time since the study began in 1996, teen-agers said it
was easier to buy marijuana than cigarettes or beer.

The annual survey didn't specify whether drugs are easy or difficult
to buy at school, but 63 percent of students said their schools are
"drug-free," nearly double the number who said the same in 1998. It's
the highest percentage since 1996.

Gerald Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of
Secondary School Principals, said student drug use has been dropping
for the past four or five years as communities began financing anti-
drug programs. "There has been a sense that the drug problem, while
not solved, has been improving," he said.

More than half of students said they don't drink alcohol in a typical
week, and about as many said they have never had a drink.

While one in four pupils said at least one parent smokes cigarettes,
69 percent said they have never smoked.

Joel Willen, principal of Pershing Middle School in Houston, said
teachers and administrators are seeing less drug activity at school.
"I think the kids are not bringing whatever it is they're doing, if
they're doing it, to school," he said.

Pershing's drug-prevention programs are paired with a get-tough policy
on drugs that includes twice-yearly, random locker and backpack
searches by drug-sniffing dogs, Willen said. Students caught using or
selling drugs can be sent to an alternative school or expelled.

"They know we take a real hard line on drugs," he said.

The survey also found that:

8 percent of students believe there is a teacher at their school who
uses illegal drugs.

25 percent said they have seen illegal drugs being sold at
school.

55 percent said they'd report someone they saw using drugs at
school.

56 percent said they'd report someone they saw selling drugs at
school, the highest level since 1996.

24 percent said drugs are "the most important problem facing people
your age," highest among several problems such as crime, peer
pressure, sexuality and the environment.