TEENS SAY MARIJUANA EASIER TO BUY THAN CIGARETTES, BEER

WASHINGTON (Associated Press) -- Teenagers say marijuana is easier to buy
than cigarettes or beer, with 1 in 3 saying they can find it in a matter of
hours but only 25 percent admitting to 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; another 8 percent said it would take a few hours. For the first time
since the study began in 1996, teenagers 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.

While many have criticized national anti-drug programs such as D.A.R.E.,
educators said years of using such programs seem to be paying off.

"I think we are starting to see the fruition of some of those programs,"
said Gerald Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of
Secondary School Principals.

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.

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 even expelled.

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

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, based at Columbia
University in New York, polls teenagers on drug use and the presence of
drugs in schools.

This year's random telephone survey of students age 12-17 was conducted
Dec. 27, 2001-Feb. 6, 2002, by QEV Analytics. It has a margin of error of
plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that, by
the time they complete high school, 47 percent of teenagers have smoked
marijuana, 24 percent have used another illicit drug and 81 percent have
drunk alcohol.

The agency also estimates that 70 percent have smoked cigarettes.