FEWER STUDENTS SMOKING

ALCOHOL, POT USE TOPS CIGARETTES, SURVEY SHOWS

More Franklin County students report regularly using marijuana than
smoking cigarettes for the first time in the nearly 20-year history of
a local drug-use survey.

But it's not that marijuana use is up; it's actually down from a peak
in 1997, according to the Primary Prevention Awareness, Attitude & Use
Survey of about 78,000 public- and private-school students released
yesterday.

Rather, tobacco use has plunged.

"In high school, cigarette use has been about cut in half," said Paul
Weener, chief executive officer of DiagnosticsPlus, the Pennsylvania
company that conducted the survey for the local Education Council.

In the survey for drug use in 2006, 19 percent of high-school seniors
reported smoking pot at least once a month, down from the peak of 26
percent in 1997. About 18 percent now report smoking cigarettes, down
from the peak of 37 percent 10 years ago.

"People aren't really on the cigarettes," said Northland High School
student Antonio Moore, 15. "They stay away from the cigarettes because
of that nicotine addiction. I've got a lot of friends, they do
marijuana and they say, 'I don't mess with cigarettes that much.' "

The eight-page, multiple-choice survey was taken in November and
December in about 4,000 classrooms across Franklin County. Paul
Coleman, president of the Maryhaven drug- and alcohol-treatment
center, said tobacco-prevention programs in schools have reduced the
number of young tobacco smokers, but he said those new attitudes about
the health consequences of smoking haven't bridged over to marijuana.
Most people, young and old, don't view marijuana use as a "smoking
problem," he said.

"I think young people are beginning to realize that tobacco use
profits them not at all, but certainly profits big business," Coleman
said. With buying marijuana, he said, "The pusher is a friend, or a
friend of a friend."

The survey, taken every three years, found that alcohol use also is
down from its all-time high of 51 percent of seniors saying in 1988
that they drank at least monthly. By last year, that had dropped to 38
percent.

But A.J. Williams, 18, a senior at Northland, said he thinks the
survey underreports the use of alcohol, which he says is common at
weekend parties. More than half of his classmates drink alcohol, he
said.

"If it's going to be a party, there's going to be alcohol there," he
said. "If there's not alcohol, your party is not worth going to."

If the drops in use found by the survey are correct, they would mean
that since 1997: 7,290 fewer Franklin County students are regularly
using alcohol; 10,725 fewer students are regularly smoking cigarettes;
and 4,289 fewer are smoking marijuana, Weener said.

A second survey, however -- this one for the entire state -- didn't
show fewer children using all drugs. The Ohio Youth Risk Behavior
Survey, which attempts to measure youth drug abuse across the state,
found that tobacco use among seniors increased between 2003 and 2005,
from 23 percent to 33 percent, said Stacey Frohnapfel-Hasson,
spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.

Statewide, alcohol use had dropped less than 1 percent, to 47.5
percent of seniors, with marijuana use dropping 2.4 percent to 25 percent.

Weener credits school programs with helping kids deal with peer
pressure when it comes to saying no to drugs.

"What do you say when a fellow student offers you a drink, or a
cigarette, or a marijuana joint?" Weener asked. "If they have been
given some words to use, and that they have practiced using, the
chances of them accepting that are less."