In response to this question ...
> Does anyone have the reference for the information on drug use in
> teens other than the Phil. Inq.?
 
... was this comment:
> ...  the student surveys are only done every two years here <Canada>
 
The August drug use story is based on the annual US "Household Survey."
Suggest looking at John P. Morgan's deconstruction of the methodology
of household surveys in, I think, U Kansas Law Review 1988. Telephone,
first (any) respondent, not a good verification / validation history --
not the sort of data from which one should make policy decisions. This
is a NIDA survey and they publish the results, albeit many months after
the fact. A synopsis, or at least a press release, is obviously already
available. They have a web page.
 
The US student use survey is done annually, released each spring (March,
I think) by the Institute of Social Research at U Michigan. It surveys
seniors only, and only those in school at time of survey. Self-reporting
in this instrument has been questioned but I tend to think it a better
measure, at least of who it measures.
 
> Lloyd Johnston is quoted in the NYT Wed. applying a generational
> forgetting description to youthful drug use over the last two decades
> or so -- a rather different period!
 
Johnston is man behind the ISR / Youth survey  -- I've heard him say
this not about generational cohorts, but about the year-to-year shifts
arising between cohorts !! He seems a bit more ideologic than
inquisitive at times.
 
As an aside, I am appalled at the American press's insistence on
reporting data in terms of percentages (up 87%, down 132%) rather than
in real numbers; I also find their myopia in terms of viewing data spans
somewhat strange, as they never seem to mention the REAL upward curves
of early 1970's -- stepping back from a picture is necessary to see the
composition, and framing these yearly peaks and valleys as if they were
the mountain is not very useful or enlightening.
 
Regards - RDW
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Lansing Michigan USA