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 [log in to unmask] Lansing Michigan USA