SMOKING, ECSTASY MAY BE LOSING ALLURE WITH KIDS

Kids are apparently getting the message that cigarettes are increasingly
passe and the club drug ecstasy isn't danger-free.

Smoking by young people declined significantly in 2001 while recent,
dramatic increases in teen ecstasy use appeared to be slowing, according to
an annual University of Michigan report released Wednesday.

The Monitoring the Future survey of 44,000 students nationwide found that a
strong increase in teen smoking during the 1990s is reversing. In 1996, 21
percent of eighth-graders said they currently smoked -- meaning they had one
or more cigarettes in the previous 30 days. This year, that number was 12.2
percent. Similar declines were reported for 10th-graders, from 30.4 percent
down to 21.3 percent, and for 12th-graders, from 34 percent to 29.5 percent.

Use of ecstasy, a hallucinogenic stimulant that gained popularity in the
1990s rave dance party scene, continued to rise but at a slower pace than
previous years, "which may presage a turnaround next year," said Lloyd
Johnston, the principal investigator of the study done by the U-M Institute
for Social Research.

Johnston said many more students view ecstasy use as dangerous.
Drug-prevention advocates have battled the perception that ecstasy is
harmless.

Side effects of ecstasy include confusion, memory loss, depression, anxiety
and paranoia, Johnson said. It can cause dehydration and, in severe cases,
heart or kidney failure, he said.

The study said 5.2 percent of eighth-graders have tried ecstasy. The number
rose to 8 percent among 10th-graders and to nearly 12 percent among
12th-graders.

Johnston attributed the drop in smoking to sharp increases in prices -- 70
percent in the last five years in some states. But he also said smoking is
losing its cachet with young people, in large part because of strong
antismoking campaigns and a reduction in tobacco advertising.

Joel Stapleton of Farmington Hills said fewer of his classmates at
Clarenceville High School, where he's a senior, are drinking alcohol or
doing drugs, although he's not sure why.

"People are getting bored with it, it seems," the 17-year-old said, adding
that some seniors still go to drinking parties.

He was Christmas shopping in downtown Royal Oak with friend Katie Galazka,
18, a Clarenceville graduate from Livonia who will begin attending Wayne
State University next month.

She doesn't smoke cigarettes, but Stapleton has occasionally. He said he's
not smoking now. Both said most of their friends don't, either.

They said the school wasn't all that effective at teaching kids to stay away
from harder drugs. Galazka said the school sent a stronger message against
drinking and driving, holding assemblies showing in gruesome detail what
happens in alcohol-related crashes.

"They put a huge emphasis on that," said Galazka, who added she won't drink
and drive. "They'd say, 'We can't stop you from drinking -- but don't
drive.' "

Susan Hiltz, executive director of the Prevention Coalition of Southeast
Michigan in Southfield, said the survey results are a welcome sign that new
efforts to teach kids to make good decisions for themselves are effective.

Hiltz said adolescent years are crucial in shaping habits that can last a
lifetime, and educators, police, parents and others should be frank with
young people.

"A lot of times we underestimate the power of young people to make the right
decisions about their lives," she said. "They're smart enough to make good
decisions if you give them the right information: What does ecstasy do? What
do cigarettes do to your body?"

The survey, now in its 27th year, is based on anonymous self-reports from
students in 435 randomly selected schools in the continental United States.
It's funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The study also found:

* Heroin use, already rare among young people, declined among 10th- and
12th-graders for the first time in a decade.

* The number of students who reported any use of illicit drugs remained
fairly constant since the 1990s: 26.8 percent of eighth-graders, 45.6
percent of 10th-graders and 53.9 percent of 12th-graders.

* Alcohol and marijuana -- two of the most widely used drugs -- showed
little change.

View study results and comparisons to earlier years at
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org. Click on Press Releases.