Ecstasy use soars The percentage of high school seniors who report having tried methamphetamine has dropped since 1998 while use of the drug Ecstasy doubled, according to figures released yesterday by the state Department of Health.
with prep seniors
The percentage of isle 12th-graders
taking crystal meth is downBy Susan Essoyan
sessoyan@starbulletin.comOverall, 5 percent of seniors surveyed last year said they had used methamphetamine, or "ice," at least once, down from 8 percent in 1998 and a high of 12 percent in 1989, when the drug was first tracked.
"It's nice to see crystal meth looks like it's beginning to stabilize," said Elaine Wilson, chief of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division of the Health Department. "But we know there are a lot of people not attending school who have problems."
The figures are contained in The 2002 Hawaii Student Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Use Study, a biannual survey conducted in schools across the state. Anonymous questionnaires are given to students in sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grades whose parents give permission.
Altogether, 28,000 students at 181 public and 34 private schools responded in 2002, nearly half of the enrollment in the grades surveyed. Although the survey excludes dropouts, whose drug use may them from school, the data reveals trends over time among Hawaii students and allows comparisons with their peers across the nation.
"Hawaii prevalence rates for most illicit drugs are lower than national rates," said Renee Storm Pearson, the study's principal investigator and an associate professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
"Substance use continues to be a significant problem in Hawaii, but the stabilization pattern in illicit drug use and the decrease in alcohol and tobacco use is encouraging."
Despite concern about the spread of "ice," methamphetamine use reported by Hawaii seniors in 2002 is less than the national average, 5 percent versus 7 percent.
Ecstasy use in Hawaii reached the national average this year, with 11 percent of seniors reporting having tried it, up from 5 percent in 1998, when the drug was first included in the survey.
Although the study showed that students here perceive Ecstasy as relatively safe, Pearson called it "just as dangerous as methamphetamine when you look at what's happening to the brain."
She singled out Windward Oahu as an area of special concern, noting that 18 percent of seniors there had tried Ecstasy and 8 percent crystal meth, compared to statewide figures of 11 percent and 5 percent respectively.
Overall, just under half of high school seniors in Hawaii say they have tried an illicit drug. Marijuana is the most prevalent choice for students in grades 8, 10, and 12, followed by Ecstasy. Marijuana use has remained fairly steady for several years, with 46 percent of Hawaii seniors surveyed last year having tried pot at least once, close to the national average of 48 percent.
Among sixth-graders in Hawaii, inhalants are most popular, with nearly 6 percent trying them.
Student tobacco use reached an all-time low in 2002, Pearson said, with 49 percent of Hawaii seniors saying they had smoked cigarettes, compared to 57 percent of their peers across the country. Alcohol use is also declining. Students reported that it is twice as hard to buy alcohol and tobacco now than it was in 1996, before the state began sting operations to catch store owners selling to minors.
The study found that at least one in 10 students in grades 6 through 12 needs treatment for alcohol or drug use or both -- roughly 11,300 kids. But state funds fall far short, covering just 1,500 kids in school-based programs, Wilson said.
"Treatment does work, particularly for adolescents," she said. "We should really be there in the middle schools, because between 8th and 10th grade it gets real bad."
The study will soon be available at state libraries and can be viewed online at www.state.hi.us/doh/resource/adad/report2002/index.html.
State Health Department
