
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 22, 1993                   TAG: 9304220432
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DRUG ABUSE NO TIME TO GET COMPLACENT

BEFORE moving his family into the White House, President Clinton acknowledged that it might be a difficult transition for First Daughter Chelsea, aged 12. He said, "We're going to do the very best we can to give her a childhood that's as normal as possible."

Let's hope he can do better than that. "Normal" childhood today has become a treacherous zone of passage littered with guns, poverty, abortion, alcohol, physical abuse.

And drugs - don't forget about drugs.

A couple of years ago, studies were showing that cocaine and marijuana usage by teen-agers was declining. It was easy at the time to accept the judgment of William J. Bennett, drug czar in the Bush administration, that the drug problem in general was "no longer getting worse. In some significant ways, it is getting better." It was easy to believe this was a long-term trend.

But now comes a study that casts cold water on such optimism. It suggests that more children are doing drugs before they reach high-school age.

Marijuana and LSD use increased among eighth-graders in 1992. Even more popular drugs for this age group are so-called inhalants - potent chemical fumes sniffed like glue. Researchers also found eighth-graders are now less likely to view cocaine or crack cocaine as dangerous.

Meanwhile, LSD use is also on the rise among high-school seniors, according to the study, even though use of marijuana and other illegal drugs seems to have dropped off.

The national survey should serve to remind Clinton, a '60s kind of guy even if he never inhaled, that the war on drugs has not been won. It should also serve to remind politicians, including Virginia's, that the war on drugs isn't working.

It's not working simply to crack down on drug traffickers and pass tougher laws to punish drug-abusers. Law enforcement is important, but trafficking will continue to flourish as long as each new generation produces a new crop of customers to purchase the traffickers' wares.

What is needed, at the federal, state and local levels, is a shift of strategy and resources toward reducing demand for drugs. Education. Peer pressure. Prevention. Treatment. These are the keys to increasing recognition that drug abuse doesn't make for a happy, normal childhood - or, for that matter, happy, normal adulthood.

by CNB