Health Update

American students smoke fewer cigarettes and consume less alcohol than their European peers, but they use marijuana and other illegal drugs more, according to a recent comparison of European and American studies on teenage drug and alcohol use.

Thoroddur Bjarnason, an assistant professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Albany and a member of the steering board of the European study, said the American-European comparison is important because it showed global trends that can affect how nations and schools implement drug policies and prevention efforts.

The European study, called "European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Drugs," surveyed drug use of 10th graders in 30 European countries. It was released last month at a conference of the World Health Organization. Conducted in 1999, it was designed to be similar to "Monitoring the Future," the widely cited annual study of American 10th graders' drug use, in order to allow for comparisons between the European countries...