Drug Use Growing Among Younger Kids

Marijuana use by black males as young as 11 has tripled in four years. For white girls, it’s more than doubled. And teens who carry guns or join gangs are more likely to use cocaine, a national survey says.

Against this bleak statistical backdrop, President Clinton said Thursday he will convene a White House conference to counter messages to teens that it’s “cool, sexy, attractive” to drink or get high.

“This is madness, pure and simple. And we all have to do whatever we can to get it out of our lives,” Clinton said in a speech before the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America.

The one-day conference, slated for January, would bring together police, academics and clergy, and officials in government, education and media to seek ways to reduce crime and drug use among juveniles, Clinton said.

As the president spoke, the Atlanta-based National Parent’s Resource Institute for Drug Education, or PRIDE, released its annual survey of drug use and violence in junior and senior high schools.

With illegal drug usage by high school students steadily climbing over eight years and currently hovering near 35 percent, overall teen drug use will, in three or four years, reach 1979’s all-time high of 51 percent, said PRIDE president Thomas J. Gleaton.

And junior high students seem to be leading the way.

“Clearly, the new movement back to drugs is led by younger students,” said Doug Hall, a PRIDE spokesman.

The survey of 200,000 students in 32 states found that marijuana use in grades 6 through 8 skyrocketed during the 1994-95 school year.

It measured 13.3 percent for black males for a 195 percent increase over the 1991-92 report; 6.7 percent for black females, a 253 percent increase over four years; and 7.2 percent for white females, a 118 percent relative increase.

Slightly more than 10 percent of white males in the same age group reported using marijuana last year, a 79 percent increase over 1991-92.

Overall, white students reported higher incidence of drug use than black students for the 10 substances studied, including cocaine, hallucinogens and inhalants.

Behavioral scientist Stephen Thomas blamed the resurgence on waning national attention to drugs.