Social Policy

White House Losing War on Drugs

Two recently released national surveys show that since President Clinton took office hard-drug abuse among teens has been rising at alarming rates:

  • One two-year survey conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia university finds that 12 to 17-year-olds are increasingly using hard drugs.

  • The number of 12-year-olds who know a user of hard drugs has more than doubled over the past year, to 23.5 percent.

This survey seems to contradict an earlier study conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). That survey found drug use for teens between ages 12 and 17 was down, from 10.9 percent in 1995 to 9 percent last year.

Overall, however, even the HHS study found a significant increase in drug use among the 18 to 25-year-olds.

  • Use of drugs among this age group increased from 13.3 percent in 1994 to 15.6 percent in 1996.

  • Moreover, the HHS study found that 12 to 17-year-olds' use of hallucinogenic drugs has also increased.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the HHS report serves as another "wake-up call" that youths' attitudes toward drugs haven't changed much.

Source: Donald Lambro (Correspondent), "Clinton's Abandoned War on Drugs," Washington Times, September 4, 1997.

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