TEENS SAY POT IS EASIER TO BUY THAN CIGARETTES OR BEER

WASHINGTON -- Teenagers 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 acknowledge trying it, a national survey finds.

When the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse polled 1,000 teens
this past winter, 27 percent said they could buy marijuana in an hour or
less; another 8 percent said it would take a few hours. But 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 did not 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 is the highest
percentage since 1996.

While many have criticized nationally used anti-drug programs such as DARE,
educators said years of using such programs seem to be paying off.

"We're starting to see the fruition of some of those programs," said Gerald
Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School
Principals.

He said student drug use has been dropping for the past four or five years
as communities began financing anti-drug programs.

More than half of students said they do not 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. "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.

The survey also found that:

* 8 percent of students say 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 would report someone they saw using drugs at school.

* 56 percent said they would 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.

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, based at Columbia
University, 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.