Study Finds Students Using Less Beer, Drugs

The state’s junior and senior high school students are drinking more wine, but overall beer and most illicit drugs are less popular now than two years ago, a study released Thursday said.

California Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, who released the study in Los Angeles, said the figures reflecting a drop in the use of beer, hard liquor and most drugs among seventh, ninth and 11th graders was “good news.”

Van de Kamp, a Democratic candidate for the gubernatorial nomination, noted that marijuana use has dropped by one-third and cocaine use has been cut in half since the first study in 1986.

But he cautioned against becoming over optimistic.

“No one can claim victory from a survey which shows that 13.4% of our seventh graders have been intoxicated at least once, or that 5% of our ninth graders have experimented in the last six months with cocaine,” he said.