Last Thursday, the Clinton administration released the national drug use survey for 1999 and heralded a decline in teen drug use. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey called it "extremely encouraging news." HHS secretary Donna Shalala proclaimed: "We've not only turned the corner -- we're heading for home plate."
The basis for these remarks was the finding that current (monthly) use of illicit drugs had dipped, from 9.9 to 9.0 percent for 12-17 year olds. In fact, this change is not statistically significant, as Shalala was forced to admit during press questions at the announcement. And by focusing on kids as young as 12, the administration press releases also mask the fact that drug use is dramatically higher among older kids, with surveys showing that 54.7 percent of high school seniors in 1999 had used an illicit drug by graduation. This number has actually increased in six out of the past seven years; the number of seniors who have experimented with drugs is now higher than the comparable rate for the drug-addled Class of '75.
McCaffrey and Shalala were not asked to explain the apparent failure of the administration's much heralded, and taxpayer-funded, $ 200 million media campaign. Far from a triumph, the administration is actually facing the full collapse of its drug policy. Use is at high levels, and the president has been forced to "deliver" a $ 1.3 billion military aid package to Colombia, because cocaine and heroin coming from that country are out of control and financing a serious threat to democracy in the hemisphere. Maybe the media can recycle some of the revenues from the administration's anti-drug ad campaign into reporting on its claims of success.