This year's National Household Survey on Drug Abuse is a decidedly mixed bag of mildly encouraging statistics and continuing bad news about America's use and abuse of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. The Clinton administration, however, has chosen to accentuate the positive. Releasing the annual report on youth and adult substance use and abuse on Aug. 18, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Donna Shalala and Office of National Drug Control Strategy Director Barry McCaffrey highlighted the fact that the survey showed current illicit drug use reported by 12- to 17-year-olds declined slightly between 1997 and 1998, from 11.4 percent to 9.9 percent of respondents. "The findings are good news demonstrating that America's team effort is working," said McCaffrey. "This first major sign of success has occurred because parents, teachers, coaches, ministers, and community coalitions are all working together in a comprehensive national and local effort."
President Clinton also put an optimistic spin on the findings, saying, "This encouraging news shows that more young people are getting the message that drugs are wrong and illegal, and can kill you," he said. "We must continue our unprecedented media campaign to reach our children with powerful anti-drug messages ... We must expand our partnerships with community anti-drug coalitions, and work to enact our long-term strategy."
Community-based leaders may be flattered by this kind of attention, but would be wise to treat the survey results with a healthy wait-and-see attitude. As the Drug Policy Foundation (DPF), a drug policy reform group, points out, the 9.9 percent current-use rate being celebrated remains higher than that reported as recently as 1996 (9.0 percent). "The truth is that drug use trends fluctuate over time," said DPF policy analyst Rob Stewart. "Yet, every year, administration officials declare the new results a watershed in their commitment to seek more funding for the same policy."
HHS itself proves Stewart's point in its press release on the survey results. Discussing drinking by young adults, HHS notes that the 1998 survey shows that 31.7 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds reported binge drinking, compared to 28 percent in 1997, a significant increase. But the administration -- which has campaigned against binge drinking -- in this instance was quick to point out that the 1998 rate was about equal to that reported in 1996. Current use of marijuana by adolescents also has fluctuated in recent years, from 7.1 percent in 1996 to 9.4 percent in 1997 to 8.3 percent in 1998.
In an Aug. 20 editorial on the survey, the Bergen Record noted, "a positive trend cannot be declared until there's a decline over several years in drug use among teenagers." Meanwhile, the long-term statistical information that is identifiable in this year's survey is not terribly encouraging, especially where use of legal drugs is concerned. Estimates of current smoking among 18- to 25-year-olds, for example, continues to climb, from 34.6 percent in 1994 to 40.6 percent in 1997 to 41.6 percent in 1998. And smoking among 12- to 17-year-olds "is virtually unchanged and disturbingly high," according to William D. Novelli, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The good news: smoking among the population at large has declined.
Current alcohol use among youth also remained steadily high during 1998, according to the survey, which showed that 19.1 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds said they used alcohol during the past month, along with 60 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds. Those numbers prompted a rare call from the conservative Family Research Council -- which usually inveighs against illicit drug use -- for more attention to youth alcohol use. Noting that the survey estimates the population of underage drinkers at 10.4 million, FRC Director Robert Maginnis said, "We need to keep the pressure on illicit drugs but also push down the underage use of alcohol, which has been increasing dramatically in recent years."
The administration's underage drinking policy recently came under fire when federal officials opposed a plan to include anti-alcohol ads in the national youth anti-drug media campaign. Critics contended that by focusing solely on use of illicit drugs like marijuana, cocaine and heroin, the campaign misses the much larger problems of youth alcohol and tobacco use.
The raw numbers provided in the Household Survey help put this issue in perspective: 8.7 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds reported past-month use of pot -- by far, the most popular illicit drug -- compared to 19.1 percent who reported past-month use of alcohol. Further, just 0.8 percent of the total U.S. population age 12 and older used cocaine during the past month, according to HHS.
In other findings, the survey showed that youths' perceived risk of marijuana use remained unchanged between 1997 and 1998, and that drug use rates in two states where medical marijuana bills passed -- California and Arizona -- either remained unchanged or declined.
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