Pubdate: Tue, 01 Aug 2006
Source: News-Sentinel, The (Fort  Wayne, IN)
Copyright: 2006 The News-Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.fortwayne.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1077
Author: Ken Kusmer, The Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

ALCOHOL, MARIJUANA USE DOWN FOR TEENS

But State Survey Shows Smokeless Tobacco Use Up

INDIANAPOLIS -- Fewer middle and high school students are drinking 
alcohol or using marijuana and other drugs, but more in grades 9-12 
are trying smokeless and pipe tobacco, an annual survey shows.

Surveys completed this spring by 131,017 public and private school 
students in grades 6-12 show students at all levels generally were 
using alcohol and marijuana less than in previous years, and students 
in grades 6-8 used tobacco products less, according to the survey 
released Monday by the Indiana Prevention Resource Center at Indiana 
University in Bloomington.

A decline in cigarette use among high school students that was 
detected last year held steady this year, the survey showed, but the 
use of smokeless tobacco increased for grades 9-12 and pipe smoking 
increased for 10th-graders and older. Among 12th-graders, for 
example, 9.8 percent admitted using smokeless tobacco at least once a 
month, compared with 8.6 percent last year, and 4.6 said they smoked 
tobacco in pipes, up from 3.7 percent.

"A shift may be occurring in the manner in which tobacco is used," 
said Ruth Gassman, executive director of the IU center.

Several years of steadily declining alcohol use among 10th-, 11th- 
and 12th-graders continued this year, but a higher percentage of high 
school seniors engaged in binge drinking. This year, 27.3 percent 
acknowledged they had had at least five drinks in one sitting during 
the two weeks before they completed the survey, compared with 25.9 
percent last year.

Alcohol is the most common of the so-called gateway drugs, with 70.2 
percent of 12th-graders this year saying they had had a drink at 
least once in their lives, compared with 72.3 percent in 2005. Among 
sixth-graders this year, 25.2 percent reported having at least one 
drink, down from 26.1 percent last year.

Bill Stanczykiewicz, president of the Indiana Youth Institute 
advocacy group, said the survey showed steadily declining use of each 
of the gateway drugs among sixth-graders over the past decade.

"They're all moving in the right direction over 10 years, and that's 
great news," Stanczykiewicz said.

"It should bode very well as these kids get older and move into high school."

Olgen Williams, executive director of Indianapolis' Christamore House 
and an activist for the welfare of urban youth, said lots of the 
teenagers coming through the doors of his community center admit 
smoking marijuana, but few smoke cigarettes. He said they don't 
consider marijuana a drug as serious as, say, crack cocaine.

"We still have a lot of work to do, and we can't be afraid to set 
reasonable boundaries for children," Williams said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman