8THGRADE POT, TOBACCO USE DROPS BUT SURVEY SHOWS USE IN HIGHER GRADES

Washington After six years of steady increases, rates of marijuana use
and tobacco smoking may be leveling off among young adolescents as slightly
more eighthgraders seem to have a greater awareness of the dangers
associated with those activities, according to an annual federal survey of
high school students released Saturday.

"This change in attitudes represents a glimmer of hope in our efforts to
protect our children from drugs, but our work is far from over," President
Clinton said Saturday, commenting on the survey results in his weekly radio
address.

As a statistical matter, the changes were too small to be significant, and
also largely were confined to eighthgraders, the youngest age group
surveyed. Marijuana use and cigarette smoking still are on the rise among
10th and 12thgraders, according to the 1997 Monitoring the Future study.

"It is a complicated story this year, because not all the trend line are
moving in the same direction said Lloyd Johnston, chief re searcher on the
study, which has been conducted under federal grants for 23 years by the
University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

"The good news is that we are beginning to see greater appreciation of the
risks among the young teens, and that should translate into decreased drug
abuse in the next few years, but that still leaves us at very high levels
of teen drug use, twice what they were in the early 1990 in some cases,"
Johnston said.

Rep. Rob Portman, ROhio, disagreed with Clinton's conclusions about the
survey. In the GOP weekly radio address, Portman said, "This is not the
time to take comfort in a report that confirms these unacceptable levels.
While it's better than last year, remember it still represents a failing
grade."

The druguse epidemic that began in the late 1960s reached a peak in the
mid1980s, according to a variety of measures. Then, reported drug use
dropped sharply among teenagers as perceptions of the risks increased. But
in the early 1990s, reported drug use began to pick up again.

The percentage of 12thgraders reporting the use of any illicit drug during
the previous year in the Monitoring the Future survey increased steadily
from 27.1 percent in 1992 to 40.2 percent in 1996 and this year rose to
42.4 percent. Tenthgraders reported a similar steady increase in the use
of illicit drugswhich include marijuana, cocaine, heroin and
hallucinogens, but not alcohol or cigarettes.

At the same time that their use of drugs was growing, their concern about
the potential risks of drug use declined.

For example, fewer than 25 percent of the high school seniors surveyed said
that occasional marijuana use posed "great risks"about the same level as
in 1996, but well below the 1991 survey, in which more than 40 percent of
the seniors expressed such concerns.

By contrast, eighthgraders reversed direction. The youngest teenagers
tracked their older counterparts through 1996. In 1991, 6.2 percent
reported smoking marijuana in the previous year. By 1996, 18.3 percent made
a similar statement. But in the 1997 survey, that figure dropped a fraction
to 17.7 percent.

Similarly the percentage of eighthgraders reporting that regular
marijuana. use involves risks physical and otherwise rose from 70.9
percent last year to 72.7 percent in 1997. Although the changes are too
small to be statistically significant, Johnston and other researchers
believe the data may indicate a trend.

"The relapse of the 1990s may have stalled or at least slowed down,"
Johnston said. In addition to Monitoring the Future, several other major
studies this year showed that teen drug use was the same or lower than last
year, in contrast to the steady increases recorded in the previous five or
six years.

The survey also reported that tobacco use among eighthgraders fell last
year after steadily increasing throughout the 1990s, remained about the
same among 10thgraders and increased among seniors.

The 1997 Monitoring the Future survey involved the results of anonymous
questionnaires completed by 51,000 eighth, 10th and 12thgrade students
at 495 high schools nationwide.

Figures from the annual teen drug abuse survey released Saturday:

* MARIJUANA: The percentage of students who used marijuana in the past year
and past month remained unchanged this year among 8th 10th and 12thgrade
students. Daily use by eighthgraders decreased to 1.1 percent this year
from 1.5 percent in 1996. Daily use among seniors increased to 5.8 percent
in 1597 from 4.9 percent last year.

* COCAINE: The rate of students who used cocaine remained steady for all
three grade levels surveyed. Lifetime use of cocaine in all forms increased
among 12thgraders. Seniors who had used cocaine at least once increased to
8.7 percent this year from 7.1 percent in 1936.

* HEROIN: Use among eighthgraders decreased to 1.3 percent this year from
1.6 percent in 1996. 2.1 percent of ail three grades surveyed reported
having used heroin at least once in their lifetime.

* CIGARETTES: The percentage of eighthgrade students who said they smoked
heavily decreased. Eighthgraders who smoked a halfpack of cigarettes or
more per day decreased to 3 5 percent, from 4.3 percent Seniors who used
cigarettes in the past month increased to 36.5 percent this year from 34.0
percent last year.

* ALCOHOL: Eighthgraders who reported having been drunk in the past 30
days decreased to 8.2 percent this year from 9.6 percent in 1996.

10thgraders reporting having been drunk daily increased to 0.6 percent in
1997 from 0.4 percent in 1996 12thgraders who used alcohol in the past
year increased to 74.8 percent this year, from 72.5 percent in 1996.