SUBSTANCE ABUSE BY AREA TEENS DECLINING; PROBLEM AREAS REMAIN

Maybe years of drug abuse prevention programs are paying off. Maybe drugs
are losing their appeal.

For three consecutive years now, substance abuse has been steadily
declining among Kansas City area teen-agers, a survey released Tuesday by
the Kauffman Foundation shows.

Overall substance abuse by teens in the 2000-2001 school year was lower
than at any time in the past 16 years the foundation has conducted the
annual survey of student drug use.

The new survey, which covered 13 substances, found that the numbers of
students who said they had ever used "uppers" such as amphetamines, LSD, or
inhalants such as airplane glue were at all-time lows.

Alcohol and tobacco use also were dropping, the survey found.

But there were cautionary findings, as well.

Marijuana use remained steady, and at high levels. The use of opiates such
as heroin was creeping up. And there was new evidence that the party drug
Ecstasy had spread throughout the metropolitan area.

Substance abuse rates among Kansas City area teen-agers generally were
similar to those found among teens nationwide in a recent federally
sponsored study. But locally, alcohol consumption was significantly higher.

"I would call the survey results optimistic, with a lot of hard work
ahead," said Jim Nunnelly, administrator of COMBAT, Jackson County's
community-based anti-drug effort.

"I think this is an indication that some of the things we're doing are
right, but we still have to keep a lid on the drug problem," he said.

Declining Problem

For several students at Center High School, the downward trend in drug use
was not a surprise.

"When I first came here as a freshman, more people used to smoke weed a
lot," said senior Julius Floyd. "But I don't see it as much now."

Senior Walter Townsend said he thought students had found more productive
ways to spend their time.

"You really don't hear people talk about them (drugs) anymore," the
17-year-old said. "I think people finally realized they're stupid."

Some school officials agreed that drug abuse was not as much of a problem
as in years past.

School resource officer Mark Hotzel does not write as many tickets for
cigarette smoking as he did several years ago at Shawnee Mission Northwest
High School.

More enforcement, less marketing toward teens and the higher cost of
cigarettes all have led to fewer smokers, Hotzel said.

"It's all about how society perceives it," he said. "I think they see
they're not getting high from it and that not as many people are doing it."

Gwen Poss, principal of Olathe South High School, said the number of drug
reports had decreased at school. She said prevention programs, a
zero-tolerance policy and school resource officers had helped lower drug use.

"After school violence like Columbine, kids have made schools sanctuaries,"
Poss said. "They realize they'd get caught with drugs here with all the
things that have been put in place."

Prevention Messages

Linda Stewart, director of the Regional Prevention Center of Wyandotte
County, credited prevention programs such as those her agency advises for
helping to reduce teen drug use.

"I think it's undeniable that they've been a success," she said. "We work
with schools. We work with churches. We work with parents to let them know
they can make a difference in their community."

Stewart suggested that parents tell their children that it is possible to
turn down offers of drugs and still be cool. And parents should warn
children about the legal and health consequences of drug use, she said.

"Kids who don't use drugs have a really strong anti-drug attitude," said
Stacey Daniels-Young, a Kauffman Foundation researcher.

Teen-agers who were surveyed by the foundation gave several reasons they
did not use illegal drugs, Daniels-Young said: They were concerned about
the effects drugs had on their brain and athletic performance. They knew
their parents would be angry if they were discovered using drugs. And they
thought that illegal drug use was wrong.

The teen-agers said during the survey that they shunned cigarettes and
alcohol because they did not like how they tasted.

Ben Bowers, 18, is part of a cigarette-smoking prevention club at Blue
Valley Northwest High School, he said. In the parking lot after school,
club members hand out coupons for free ice cream to students who are not
smoking. Smokers get literature about the negative effects of cigarettes.

"Smoking was a way that people tried to fit in my freshman year," said
Bowers, a senior. "But in four years, it's gone down in popularity. People
have seen its effects."

The Kauffman Foundation conducted the survey from September 2000 through
June 2001, polling 9,479 students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades.

The students attended 75 schools in the Blue Springs, Center, Grandview,
Hickman Mills, Independence, Kansas City, North Kansas City, Park Hill and
Raytown school districts in Missouri and the Kansas City, Kan.; Olathe;
Shawnee Mission; Blue Valley and Turner school districts in Kansas.

Survey data from the Kauffman Foundation show that overall drug use among
area teen-agers rose during the mid-1990s and then began a steady decline.

Nationally, the trend has been similar, said University of Michigan social
psychologist Lloyd Johnston, who surveys teen-age drug use. Public interest
in combating drug abuse "fell off the radar screen" in the early 1990s, and
that led to a drug epidemic among teen-agers, he said.

Teen drug use leveled off in the late 1990s as prevention returned to the
national agenda, Johnston said. But nationally, there has not been the same
downward trend as in Kansas City, he said.

"If they've managed to achieve that in Kansas City, they've done better
than the nation as a whole," Johnston said.

Some Drugs Persist

Even amid the good news, the latest Kauffman Foundation survey revealed
areas of concern.

Use of opiates, including heroin, morphine and opium, was at the highest
levels ever among eighth- and 10th-graders. Use among high school seniors
remained virtually unchanged for the past four years. About 10 percent of
seniors reported ever using opiates.

Marijuana use has stayed fairly constant in recent years, stabilizing at
levels far higher than those of a decade ago. About 26 percent of
12th-graders said they had used marijuana in the past 30 days, compared
with about 15 percent 10 years ago.

For the first time, the Kauffman Foundation added Ecstasy to its survey. It
found that students throughout the metropolitan area were using the drug.
About 10 percent of high school seniors said they had tried it.

Beth Farrell, a 17-year-old senior at Blue Valley Northwest High School,
said she had heard of people using marijuana more than alcohol at social
settings such as football games and parties.

"Some kids smoke marijuana instead of drinking," she said. "They say
there's no hangover and that it's easier to get than alcohol."

Farrell said Ecstasy was often being used at parties. "It's become a basic
drug along with marijuana," she said.

Although public concern focused on reducing the use of cocaine in recent
years, these other drugs might not have gotten the same level of attention
from drug-prevention programs, Daniels-Young suggested.

"Maybe we didn't think in this community that opiates were a problem," she
said. "And teens don't think there are long-term (health) effects of
marijuana. Parents may have thought that 'marijuana is just marijuana.' "

Indeed, about one parent in four has used illegal drugs at some time in his
or her life, Nunnelly said.

"Now (drug abuse) is generational, and it's usually marijuana," he said.
"The tolerance is greater than it was 10 or 15 years ago."

But problem drugs have yielded to prevention before in Kansas City,
Daniels-Young said.

During the first years of the Kauffman Foundation survey, alcohol use
seemed resistant to prevention efforts, she said. But alcohol consumption
finally did start to drop.

"There's been a lot of attention paid to underage drinking," Daniels-Young
said.

Other drugs might soon get that level of concern.

"We're going to do something about marijuana," Nunnelly said.