One in five young adults use drugs, survey shows

Friday, September 6th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ America has almost 16 million illegal drug users, including one in five young adults, according to a government survey that suggests use of marijuana and cocaine may be on the rise after leveling off in recent years.

Among ages 12 to 17, the youngest people surveyed, 10.8 percent were described as current drug users in 2001, up from about 9.7 percent the year before, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

Young adults ages 18 to 25 were more likely to be users, increasing to 18.8 percent from 15.9 percent in 2000. The rate of drug use among adults 26 and older stayed about the same, at 4.5 percent. Current users are those who reported using a drug within the past month.

Although a few drugs, including LSD, are diminishing in popularity, others are seeing big gains. The number of people who have tried Ecstasy increased from 6.5 million in 2000 to 8.1 million last year, the survey shows.

Non-medical use of the pain reliever Oxycontin more than doubled, from 399,000 users in 2000 to 957,000 in 2001.

The survey shows moderate increases in the use of marijuana and cocaine by teenagers and young adults from 2000 to 2001. But researchers said it was too soon to say whether that marks the reversal of a trend of stable or declining drug use since the late-1990s.

``It could continue up and be the start of a long-term trend, or it could go down again,'' said Joe Gfroerer, director of the survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. ``We don't try to predict that.''

Other national surveys saw no statistically significant increase in drug use in 2001, and some even reported declines among young people. The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse is the largest study, interviewing almost 69,000 people age 12 or older and including every state.

Timing and different methodologies often result in different results among surveys.

``Ours is in the spring, theirs is throughout the 12 month period,'' Dr. Lloyd Johnston of the University of Michigan, who leads the Monitoring the Future study.

``By the spring of 2001, we found student drug use was either level, or had been declining since 1996,'' Johnston said. ``We did show for the young adults a little increase in 2001 in illicit drug use other than marijuana, nothing very dramatic.''

There were some changes in methodology between the 2000 and 2001 Household Surveys. Researchers said the changes may have influenced reporting, but ``the effects are relatively small and do not fully account for the observed increases in substance use between 2000 and 2001.''

The 2001 Household Survey found that marijuana users increased to 5.4 percent of the population, up from 4.8 percent in 2000. Cocaine users increased to 0.7 percent, from 0.5 percent.

Health officials noted that the number of people who perceived smoking marijuana once or twice a week as risky dropped to 53 percent, and blamed baby boomer parents for failing to take the risks of pot-smoking seriously and warn their children.

``As the perception that marijuana is dangerous goes down, its use goes up,'' observed Tommy Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversaw the survey. ``More than a quarter of first-time marijuana users are under 15.''

The survey also found an increase in the number of people who would benefit from drug treatment.

The number of people needing drug treatment increased to 6.1 million, from 4.7 million in 2000, the government estimated. About 5 million of those drug abusers didn't get the treatment they needed last year, the survey said, and most didn't recognize that they had a problem.