Pubdate: Sun, 4 May 2008
Source: Livingston County Daily Press & Argus (MI)
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/23S0e9bz
Copyright: 2008 Livingston Daily Press & Argus
Website: http://www.livingstondaily.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4265
Author: Christopher Behnan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Monitoring+the+Future

JOHNSTON FIGHTS IN WAR ON DRUGS

Lloyd Johnston has studied teen drug abuse for more than 30 years, 
and said America's battle against drugs isn't lost, but it is still 
far from won.

Johnston, a founder of the decades-long "Monitoring the Future" teen 
drug-use study, began monitoring the drug-use patterns of graduating 
high school seniors under President Richard Nixon's administration.

It was the Nixon administration that coined the phrase "War on Drugs."

"It's a metaphor that doesn't work very well. It's an ongoing 
struggle," Johnston said from his lakeside Hamburg Township home.

"It's not a war you can ever win. It's a little like turning a 
battleship -- it's a slow process," he added.

While the nation's drug policy is shaped in Washington, D.C., 
Johnston has delivered vital information on the epidemic from Ann 
Arbor for 33 years.

He began studying teenage drug use while a psychology graduate 
student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Johnston worked with colleague Jerald Bachman to pitch the project to 
Nixon drug czar Robert DuPont.

DuPont, who read Johnston's 1973 book, "Drugs and American Youth," 
secured federal funding for the project through the National 
Institute on Drug Abuse.

Today, Johnston runs the program at the U-M Institute for Social 
Research, often considered the nation's top drug researcher.

"That's why I stayed in Michigan. This was the best I could do here 
in the Midwest," he said.

The study is in its 33rd year and has been fueled by $120 million in 
grant funding -- most recently receiving $33 million through the 
institute to continue the work through 2012.

In December, President George W. Bush credited the study with a 
reported reduction of 860,000 students using drugs over the previous six years.

The nationwide project takes researchers to more than 400 sites all 
over the country, and acquires data from some 50,000 students.

The study has followed high school seniors' patterns of drug use, 
behaviors and experiences into adulthood since 1976.

The study also tracks whether students go to college, get married or 
are employed. Right now, the study is tracking participants as old as 50.

Johnston has appeared as an expert on several programs, including an 
NBC special and other television networks as well as on National Public Radio.

He's had opportunities for an administrative post, but decided to 
dedicate his career to research. Johnston realized his work would 
span decades and presidential administrations; therefore, his work 
had to be as politically neutral as possible.

Over the years, Johnston, originally from New England, hasn't become 
discouraged. He has, however, seen a variety of changes and trends 
among youth in grades 8-12 during his career.

One of the common emerging patterns he's seen has been new drugs 
emerging among different generations.

For example, the country's original drug epidemic among youth peaked 
around 1980, and was followed by a decline in teen drug use, including alcohol.

That was followed by what Johnston calls a "relapse" of drug use in 
1992, which he labeled an epidemic that lasted about five years. 
During that time, there was a considerable increase in the use of 
most drugs among youth, most notably cigarette smoking.

The multimillion-dollar tobacco settlement soon drew mass attention 
to teenage smoking, which Johnston said was a catalyst for a major 
decline in smoking since the mid-1990s.

"That, I think, was a major factor in what then turned out to be 
(the) big decline in smoking we've seen roughly over the past 10 
years," he said.

"That's been a big change -- and certainly one from the standpoint of 
health," he added.

Overall, there was an increase in adolescent drug use in the 1990s, 
and their drug consumption involved other drug forms as they became 
young adults, he said.

These days, youth are more likely to take up drinking, smoking 
cigarettes and consumption of prescription drugs than take illicit 
drugs, Johnston added.

In other words, the cycle of drug use continues.

"There will always be new drugs arriving on the scene, just as there 
have been in the past," said Johnston. "I don't see this problem going away." 
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