From: Jim Rosenfield <[j n r] at [igc.apc.org]>
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Shalala: Drug Use Increase
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 1994 09:42:04 -0800 (PST)


DRUG ABUSE: Nearly half of all 12th graders are linked to drug use
by national survey.

By RONALD J. OSTROW, Times Staff Writer                  
WASHINGTON--12/13/94

In another sign of resurging drug use by young Americans, an
authoritative national survey released Monday found that nearly
half of all high school seniors have tried illicit drugs--an
increase of 3.2 percentage points over last year.

The sharpest increase was in marijuana use, with the number of 12th
graders who use the drug daily jumping to 3.6%, up by half from the
1993 level, according to the 20th annual survey by the University
of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.

"We are losing precious ground we had gained," said Health and
Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. The survey, funded by HHS'
National Institute on Drug Abuse, tracked an expansion of drug use
by young Americans into the late 1970s, a substantial decline
lasting through 1991, and a resurgence since then.

Shalala, joined by Education Secretary Richard W. Riley and federal
drug czar Lee P. Brown, blamed "drug glorification messages" for
much of the increase and said that the primary cause is that "fewer
young people believe that marijuana is harmful."

"We need anti-drug messages that are every bit as pervasive and
strong as the pop culture images that tell our youth drugs are OK,"
Shalala said. Displaying T-shirts bearing pro-drug use slogans and
symbols that her staff purchased in the Georgetown neighborhood
where she lives, Shalala said: "Increasingly, drug glorification
messages are creeping back into our popular culture."

Lloyd D. Johnston, the survey's principal investigator, said there
also has been a decline in peer disapproval of drug. "If the
softening of attitudes and peer norms continues unabated, we can
expect to see continued increases in drug use among our children,"
Johnston said. Shalala said that clear scientific evidence shows
"marijuana is a dangerous drug that can have acute and hazardous
effects, including the impairment of learning, memory, perception,
judgment and complex motor skills, including skills needed to
drive." Unless young people are educated to the dangers, the
problem will grow rapidly, Riley said. Nearly 7 million more young
people will enter the nation's school system over the next 10
years, a 14% increase. The number of 14- to 17-year-olds will jump
20%.

"The potential for trouble is enormous," Riley said. "We need to
turn around this new 'no sweat' attitude about drugs that seems to
be gaining hold among some of our young people."

While use of marijuana has changed the most markedly in the 1990s,
other illicit drugs--including LSD and other hallucinogens,
inhalants, stimulants, barbiturates and, this year, cocaine and
crack--rose gradually as well.

"Most disturbing is that for the third year in a row, we are seeing
statistically significant increases in marijuana use for 8th grade
students," Shalala said. "We're talking about 13 year olds." In a
related report, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration reported that drug-related emergency room cases
increased 8% last year over 1992.

The data, compiled by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, showed a 31%
increase in heroin-related emergency room visits, a 22% increase in
those tied to marijuana and hashish and a 53% increase in "speed,"
or methamphetamine cases.

"The report suggests that we continue to have a large group of 
aging habitual drug users who are experiencing more and more drug-
related medical problems and, as a result, have become dependent on
hospital emergency rooms for medical services," said Nelba Chavez,
administrator of the substance abuse agency.

                        Copyright Los Angeles Times