REPORT: US DRUG USE RATE UNCHANGED

WASHINGTON (AP) - Drug abuse in America was essentially unchanged last
year, the government says.

About 6 percent of those over 12 years old - or 14 million Americans - were
illegal drug users in 2000, according to an annual survey by the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, an arm of the Department
of Health and Human Services.

The findings were not significantly different from 1999, either in the
overall percentage of drug users or in the use of any of the major illegal
drugs.

However, the percentage of 12- and 13-year-olds last year that had used an
illegal drug in the month before being interviewed fell to 3 percent from
3.9 percent, the survey found.

The rate of those who had driven under the influence of drugs also
declined, to 3.1 percent from 3.4 percent, it said.

In 1999, the number of those trying marijuana for the first time dropped,
to 2 million new users from 2.6 million in 1996.

But marijuana use increased among women from 1999 to 2000, from 3.1 percent
to 3.5 percent.

The survey also identified nonmedical use of the powerful prescription
painkiller OxyContin, though still rare, as an emerging concern. The number
of OxyContin abusers increased to 399,000 in 2000 from 221,000 in 1999. The
pill, which produces a quick, heroin-like and potentially lethal high when
chewed, snorted or injected, has been linked to more than 100 deaths
nationwide since 1998.

Overall, 1.5 million Americans abused pain relievers for the first time in
1999, a large jump since the mid-1980s when the number was below 400,000.
The rise chiefly came among 12- to 17-year-olds.

Edward Jurith, acting director of the White House's Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said some of the news, especially concerning drug use
declines among the youngest adolescents, was encouraging.

But, he said, "More work is required to protect our youth from the harmful
effects of drug abuse."

The face-to-face interviews were conducted during 2000 with a sample of
71,764 people.