Poll Finds Sharp Rise in Drug Use Among Youngsters

The last year has seen a sharp rise in the number of youths ages 12 to 17 who say friends or classmates have used cocaine, heroin or LSD, according to a poll conducted for a respected drug abuse organization.

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University said the poll found that 56% of the youths surveyed said they knew someone using at least one of those three hard drugs, an increase from 39% in 1996.

The increase was greatest among 12-year-olds, with 23.5% saying friends or fellow students used the hard drugs--more than double the 10.6% level last year.

Researchers also found that preteens are smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana at earlier ages and that adolescents who abuse these “gateway drugs” run a higher risk of abusing harder drugs in the future.

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The survey was conducted for the center’s Commission on Substance Abuse Among America’s Adolescents, which was created two years ago after a study found that substance abuse trends among college students are rooted in behavior beginning in middle school.

The commission said the apparent rise in drug use suggests that parents, clergy and educators must be more vigilant in the fight against drugs.

“While we are happy about President Clinton’s decision to focus the war on drugs on the youth . . . this battle is going to be won across the kitchen tables, the church pews and the schoolyards,” said Joseph A. Califano Jr., president of the center and former secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

The commission also analyzed data from research by other organizations, concluding, among other things:

* Teens start smoking younger, with ages 11 and 12 now the peak time when youngsters first experiment with cigarettes.

* Among eighth-graders, binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks in one sitting) rose from 12.9% in 1992 to 15.6% in 1996.

* Heroin use among eighth-graders doubled between 1991 and 1996, to 2.4%. This figure matched a report released last week by the Department of Health and Human Services. That report indicated a sharp increase in teen heroin use.

The HHS report also showed that marijuana use may be leveling off among teens. But Califano said that conclusion is no cause for celebration because, while 1996 did not see increases in overall marijuana use among adolescents, teens are trying the drug at earlier ages. In 1996, for example, 12.7% of eighth-graders said they had used marijuana in seventh grade or earlier, up from 7.7% in 1992.

The new survey was conducted by Luntz Research Co., which frequently does polling for Republican political candidates. Pollsters interviewed 1,115 youths aged 12 to 17 and the results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Califano conceded that the conclusion that 56% of teens and 23.5% of 12-year-olds know someone who has used hard drugs is less than exact because youths were asked to draw conclusions about the behavior of their peers, not themselves. But the question was phrased that way to reduce the possibility that teens would lie if asked about their own drug use.

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Chris Policano, a spokesman for Phoenix House drug treatment centers, said the increasing numbers of teens treated at their centers around the nation report drug use dating back to their preteen years. He also corroborated the commission’s claim of early hard drug use among adolescents.

“The drug we see most abused is still marijuana, but we do see more teens who are expressing a familiarity, particularly in California, with crystal methamphetamine, and we have been troubled in the last year about kids with a familiarity with heroin,” Policano said.

In addition to high rates of methamphetamine use, the study indicated that the Western United States ranks higher than other areas the nation in marijuana and LSD use among eighth-graders, and for cocaine and crack use among 12th-graders. Other drugs were more popular in other regions of the country.

Barry McCaffrey, President Clinton’s drug policy advisor, said the report emphasizes a need to change teens’ attitudes about drugs.

The commission also reported that its analysis of a 1995 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found a strong correlation between so-called gateway drugs--alcohol, tobacco and marijuana--and increased hard drug use in later years.

The commission said its analysis of the CDC figures found that teens who smoked, drank or used marijuana are 17 times more likely to use harder drugs. Boys are 29 times more likely to move on to hard drugs, while girls were 11 times more likely. Girls, however, are more likely to make the jump from drinking and smoking tobacco to marijuana use.