Ah, what is wrong with this younger generation?  Seduced by new technology, absorbed in MySpace and Facebook, texting and communicating anytime, anywhere via mobile phones, addicted to their iPod music,why they just don't know how to have fun the old fashioned way——getting high on drugs.

This might be the bewildered lament of the baby boomers because their

use of marijuana and other drugs is increasing usage rates among older adults, while drug use among teenagers is declining, according to a national survey released Thursday. . . .

In 2005, 4.4% of adults in their 50s said they had used an illicit drug in the previous month, up from 2.7% in 2002. Drug use among youths 12—17, however, fell slightly for the third straight year, with 9.9% reporting illicit drug use during the previous month in 2005 compared with 10.6% in 2004.

Federal anti—drug officials say the survey indicates that while some baby boomers who were in their teens and 20s when drug—use rates peaked in the 1970s are taking their drug habits well into middle age, today's youths aren't embracing drugs as enthusiastically.

However today's youngsters have slightly increased cocaine and prescription drug abuse while adult illegal drug use is usually marijuana. 
 
Ethel C. Fenig    9 10 06