The annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health was released this week and, as usual, whether the report represented good or bad news on drug-use trends largely depends on which statistics you pull from the sprawling findings.

The Bush administration, in unveiling the 2006 report on Sept. 7, chose to emphasize a reported decline in current use of illicit drugs by youths ages 12-17; the 9.9 percent of youths self-reporting current use of any illicit drug represents a drop-off from 11.6 percent in 2002, and the rate has fallen in every intervening year. Current use of marijuana also declined in this age group, and federal officials also touted small declines in current use of alcohol and binge drinking.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into a media campaign aimed at preventing drug use -- particularly marijuana -- among youth ages 9-18. However, a recent report by Congress' Government Accountability Office concluded that the campaign has been ineffective.

Mike Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, called the  trends highlighted  in the report "encouraging," and drug czar John Walters said that American teens are "getting the message that using drugs limits their futures, and they are turning away from the destructive patterns and cruelly misinformed perceptions about substance abuse that have so damaged previous generations."

Eric Broderick, acting deputy administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, cited a "fundamental shift in drug use among young people in America."

However, anyone inclined to take a less optimistic view of the statistics need look no further than SAMHSA's own press release on the survey, which acknowledges that past-month illicit drug use among 18- to 25-year-olds has remained essentially unchanged since 2002, and that current self-reported abuse of prescription pain relievers has risen sharply among this age group -- from 5.4 percent in 2002 to 6.3 percent in 2005.

Among all Americans ages 12 and older responding to the survey, past-month marijuana use remained about the same in 2005 as in the past few years -- at about 6 percent of the population. Saying that the report shows drug use "holding steady" in recent years, the Drug Policy Alliance called for a harm-reduction approach to drug use instead of incarcerating drug users.

"What matters most is not whether drug use rates go up or down, but whether the death, disease, crime and suffering associated with both drugs and drug prohibition goes up or down," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance.

The national media, for its part, tended to latch onto the report's findings that use of illicit drugs increased among Americans ages 50-59; 4.4 percent of survey respondents in this group reported current drug use, a rate that has risen for the past three years. "Some moms and dads might want to take a lesson from their kids: Just say no," opined the Associated Press on Sept. 8. Wes Clark, director of the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, said that people who used drugs in the 60s and 70s could be at higher risk for dependency today.

A closer look at the survey data reveals some interesting facts not highlighted by the government or its critics. For example, the number of first-time users of both alcohol and tobacco among Americans ages 12 and over has risen significantly since 2002, with most first-time use of alcohol occurring before age 21 and most first-time use of tobacco happening before age 18. The report also found little change in the number of Americans classified as dependent on alcohol or other drugs or the numbers getting treatment for these disorders.

ONDCP has sparred with lawmakers in recent years over the scope of its effort to combat methamphetamine use; critics like Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), who have seen meth use explode in their home districts, have butted heads with Walters, who maintains that meth is more a regional than national problem. The latest survey data tend to support the contention that methamphetamine remains a relatively limited problem: in 2005, reported lifetime use of the drug fell to 4.3 percent of the population, with only a half-percent of Americans reporting past-year use of meth and 0.2 percent reporting past-month use.

The full survey findings are available online.