From a White House briefing yesterday by Office of National Drug
Control Policy Director Barry McCaffrey:

[We] believe that youth drug abuse those under 20 is continuing
to rise, and we're seeing new and disturbing phenomena with heroin
exposure, marijuana and other emerging drugs. And I should underscore
that marijuana is becoming a principal cause of reference for those
admitted to drugtreatment programs, particularly for the young. It's
normally seen in combination with other drugs, primarily alcohol. So
[abuse of] marijuana and alcohol, marijuana and other drugs combined,
for example, with methamphetamines or crack cocaine is on the rise
among young people. . . .

We believe we are continuing to see a drop in the use of cocaine and
crack cocaine as the principal drug threat to America. It's still the
major cause of damage. We say probably 1.4 million chronic addicts.
But except for one reporting area, [we] . . . document either stable
or continued decline in the use of cocaine. . . .

Along with that assertion, I would flag your attention to
methamphetamines, and that it's possible we're seeing methamphetamines
the poor man's cocaine replacing, to some extent, crack as a
principal stimulant drug. So methamphetamines, right now, is the
absolute dominant drug problem in Southern California, Hawaii, parts
of San Francisco, Idaho, Indiana, Missouri these are rural
settings, some of them and we think it's probably growing. And it's
a problem of devastating potential consequences. . . .

[We also] believe we're seeing the increased use of heroin [but we're]
probably on the front end of it.

(c)Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company