From: [b--r--e] at [rcf.rsmas.miami.edu] (Charlie Byrne)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: DrugCzar: Drug Use Up
Date: 27 Oct 1993 09:32:19 GMT

	UNITED NATIONS (UPI) -- The U.S. drug czar said Tuesday that ``hard-
core users'' of cocaine and heroin have increased dramatically in the
nation, including, for the first time, a rise in use among children as
young as the eigth grade.
	Lee Brown, director for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control
Policy, said there had been a positive drop of eight percent, however,
of the total number of people who used cocaine on a current basis.
	Brown said those users dropped from 5.8 million in 1985 to 1.3
million in 1992.
	``But other data give us cause for real concern,'' Brown told a two-
day General Assembly session on programs to curb illegal drug
trafficking around the world.
	``Drug use by hard-core users has remained essentially unchanged for
the past seven years, resistant to all efforts to reduce the number of
users,'' he said. ``Our country's chronic users also appear to be
getting sicker.''
((That War On Drugs is sure worth $100 billion/year!))
	Brown said there has been an 18 percent increase nationwide in
hospital visits due to cocaine and a 34 percent increase in heroin-
related illness.
	``Equally troubling is the fact that for the first time in a number
of years, eigth graders are reporting higher level of drug use, and less
perception of risk,'' he said.
((D.A.R.E. sure works well, eh?))