Survey shows drop in teen smoking, drinking, drug use

Fewer higher school students than a decade ago say they are smoking, binge drinking, or using drugs, but some adults don't buy the results of the latest statewide survey.

Those who work with youth point to the recent deaths of teens who overdosed on drugs and other examples as evidence that the 2003 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey doesn't reflect city students' lives. A smaller percentage of teens compared with their peers a decade ago said they were carrying weapons in the state survey, which was released yesterday.

"I'm shocked . . . because I thought things were getting worse, in terms of using drugs," said Michael Fung, Charlestown High School principal. He recalled the case of John Woods, the 17-year-old hockey star from Charlestown who died, along with his girlfriend, after overdosing last month. "Violent crime against young people has not gone down -- and it's usually related to drugs."

The survey, conducted every two years by the state Department of Education, polled 3,624 students in 2003, in 50 high schools selected randomly. The results are included in the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey; national results are scheduled to be released today.

Fewer students reported they were binge drinking, or using alcohol on occasion. Those who said they had sipped alcohol in the month before the survey dropped from 53 percent in 2001 to less than half in 2003. Smoking clearly lost favor. The percentage of teens who said they had tried cigarettes declined from 62 percent in 2001 to a little more than half of those surveyed last year. Daily cigarette smoking dipped from 13 percent surveyed in 1999 to 7 percent last year.

Violent behavior, according to teens, also dropped sharply. Those who carried a weapon, got into physical fights, and who were threatened declined. But the frequency stayed the same for some problems: students who reported being bullied, involved in a gang, or enduring sexual contact against their will.

On the surface, students are coping better. The percentage of students who contemplated suicide last year was 16.3 percent, compared with nearly a quarter in 1993.

"Hopefully this means the right message is getting through to our students and many of them are starting to make healthier choices for themselves," Commissioner David P. Driscoll said in a statement yesterday.

But some bad behaviors remain troubling: the percentage of students who reported trying any alcohol during their lives decreased only slightly, and use of illegal drugs -- cocaine, marijuana, and heroin -- remained steady. Nearly half the students surveyed had tried marijuana.

"That has remained a constant . . . especially in certain neighborhoods," said Kristin O'Connor, spokeswoman for the Boston Public Health Commission. She mentioned South Boston in particular, where city health workers have reported that heroin use among young adults has been persistently troubling.

Some might think that a 3 percent rate of heroin use is small, but O'Connor noted, "If you think that there are almost 19,000 high school students in Boston, that's hundreds of kids."

Alexa Kuzmich, a South Boston senior who attends Boston Latin School, said the survey results match what she sees: students unwilling to use drugs. "It doesn't seem worth it. We all know the risks [of using], and what it does to them," said Kuzmich, 18.

Some principals said they have noticed less drug use during school hours. "In the beginning of the year I'd see kids high all the time in the hallways. I just don't see it as much," said Karen Daniels, headmaster of Excel High School, part of the former South Boston High complex. Fewer students said they were being offered drugs at school -- 32 percent, as opposed to 42 percent in 1997.

Jerome Burke, principal of Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School in Easton, said he had to discipline far fewer students this year because of drug use.

"Kids in possession or distribution on school grounds? My recollection is that it was a lot less than it had been in the last couple of years." Students, he said, are far more likely to report when someone in shop is high, as it poses a danger to the user as well as other students.

Burke said he could recall only one incident, where one student ground up some Aderol, used for attention deficit disorder, so the teen and some friends could snort it in the cafeteria.

Brother Robert Green, headmaster of Malden Catholic High School, where John Woods had been a senior, said he wouldn't want adults to use the survey results as an excuse to ease up on drug abuse programs.

"If indeed things are better, they aren't better enough," Green said. "There are too many kids that are at some kind of risk of doing things that aren't good for them.

"The war isn't over."