THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT  
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, September 13, 1995          TAG: 9509130437
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                         LENGTH: Medium:   62 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: ***************************************************************** Marijuana use by U.S. teens has nearly doubled since 1992. A headline Wednesday had the wrong year. Correction published Thursday, September 14, 1995 on page A2 of THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT. ***************************************************************** MARIJUANA USE BY U.S. TEENS HAS DOUBLED SINCE 1993

Marijuana use among teenagers has nearly doubled since 1992, even as adults' use of all illegal drugs leveled off, the government announced Tuesday.

Some 12.2 million people used illegal drugs last year, up from 11.7 million in 1993 and 11.4 million in 1992, said the 1994 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. The increases were not considered statistically significant.

At the same time, 1.8 million teenagers used illegal drugs last year. The vast majority of those used marijuana, which the government survey says is on the rise among young people after 13 years of decline.

About 7.3 percent of teenagers - 1.3 million ages 12 to 17 - smoked marijuana last year. That's up from 4 percent two years earlier, the survey found. Until 1992, youth marijuana use had declined every year since 1979.

``Anyone who thinks we've licked the drug problem in this country is living in a fantasy land,'' said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, whose department conducted the survey.

Marijuana accounts for 81 percent of the nation's drug use, and its rise among teenagers reflects a growing sense that marijuana is benign, said Lee Brown, President Clinton's drug policy coordinator. Only 42 percent of teenagers considered marijuana a dangerous drug, down from 50 percent in 1992, the survey found.

To estimate the prevalence of the use of illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, HHS surveyed a nationally representative sample of 22,181 people last year. Drug use was defined as taking a drug sometime in the month before the survey.

Among other findings:

The proportion of teenagers who report being approached by someone selling drugs in the month before the survey increased to 18.9 percent last year, up from 14.4 percent in 1993.

Some 10.6 million people under age 21 drank alcohol in the month before they were surveyed. Two million were heavy drinkers, defined as those who had at least five drinks on five separate occasions in that month.

Among all Americans, 13 million were heavy drinkers.

Four million teenagers smoked cigarettes, steady since 1992.

Pregnant women cut back on drug abuse during their pregnancy, with 1.8 percent using an illegal drug compared with 6.7 percent of all women of childbearing age. However, 5.2 percent of all women with children used drugs, indicating women resume drug habits once their baby is born.

KEYWORDS: STATISTICS by CNB