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Drug use declines in teens, stays steady overall
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8-30-99 Washington. Teen-age drug use was on the decline last year, but drug use by Americans of all ages remained relatively stable, according to the 1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, the government's annual study of drug use. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which conducted the survey of 25,500 people, found that about 10 percent of young people age 12 to 17 reported using illicit drugs within the previous 30 days. The estimate represents a decline from 11.4 percent in the same age group in the 1997 survey. "The important thing is the shifting trends that the survey explains," said Joe Gfroerer, director of the division of population surveys at the agency. "This study, along with other data, seems to indicate that youth drug use seems to have stopped or gone down. But we can't predict what's going to happen in the future." The study also illustrated a leveling off of drug use in the overall population, with 13.6 million Americans admitting they used illicit drugs, compared with 13.9 million the previous year. About 8 million current drug users use marijuana only, the study found, while 60 million people age 12 and older said they smoked cigarettes. Youth alcohol use also increased significantly, with 14 percent of youths reporting heavy alcohol use, levels last reported in 1996. But some say the study may not present an accurate picture of drug use in the United States. "There are large categories of people who are not included in the survey, so it's difficult for me to say it has the finger on the pulse of America," said Karen Allen, PhD, RN president of the National Nurses Society on Addictions. "I think there is a rush to use the [findings] politically, for people to say, 'We don't need more funding here because the current programs are working.' "
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