. >> lehrer: then we interview drug czar gil kerlikowske about the jump in marijuana use by teenagers. >> ifill: john merrow reports on an ohio school district where teachers evaluate each other. >> we like to think of it as a way to help people. but if they don't, the other option is, yes, they will be looked at for termination. >> lehrer: and judy woodruff has a book conversation about passing on life lessons, with co-authors andrew young and his godson, kabir sehgal. >> i would not listen to parents, but i found out that i absorbed.

kerlikowske. very bad numbers there. why? >> it's almost a perfect storm. it shows that 8th, 10th and 12th graders showed an increase in drug use particularly troubling the 8th graders showed this increase in marijuana use. but also troubling is that across the board they really perceive the risk or the harms of drugs, marijuana less. i think that is a perfect bad storm. >> ifill: is it correct to say that marijuana use has exceeded cigarette smoking among children of this age? teenagers? >> we're seeing that we've continued to show a decrease in the nicotine use by young people, but the marijuana use is really picked up particularly in the last year. >> ifill: the lines crossed. >> just about. there are probably several reasons for it. >> ifill: they are? >> well, first of all, we continue to talk about legalization of marijuana as if it's some benign substance. we continue to talk about the medicalization of marijuana. of course smoked marijuana is not medicine. it hasn't been through any of the fda approvals. when i meet with high school students all ove

kerlikowske. we will open it up to questions in a minute, but i wanted to make a couple of points about what -- what nida is doing to reach out to teens. we have a very robust website right now. we have a teen blog that is becoming very popular, and we do at least two entries a week. it is a steady increase in users. we just completed our fourth annual drug facts chat day where we sit up for the scientists to chat with teenagers from schools all over the country. if you are interested in finding out what kids are asking about drugs in an anonymous format, it is very interesting to see what they are asking, and we also post the responses. we just completed our first ever national drugs facts week, which encourages community is to link teenagers what scientists so teenagers can find out scientifically accurate information. there is so much misinformation about drugs out there that this is our effort to put science into the middle of the conversation. more than 100 community is registered events this

kerlikowske. we will open it up to questions in a minute, but i wanted to make a couple of points about what -- what nida is doing to reach out to teens. we have a very robust website right now. we have a teen blog that is becoming very popular, and we do at least two entries a week. it is a steady increase in users. we just completed our fourth annual drug facts chat day where we sit up for the scientists to chat with teenagers from schools all over the country. if you are interested in finding out what kids are asking about drugs in an anonymous format, it is very interesting to see what they are asking, and we also post the responses. we just completed our first ever national drugs facts week, which encourages community is to link teenagers what scientists so teenagers can find out scientifically accurate information. there is so much misinformation about drugs out there that this is our effort to put science into the middle of the conversation. more than 100 community is registered events this

kerlikowske. we will open it up to questions in a minute, but i wanted to make a couple of points about what -- what nida is doing to reach out to teens. we have a very robust website right now. we have a teen blog that is becoming very popular, and we do at least two entries a week. it is a steady increase in users. we just completed our fourth annual drug facts chat day where we sit up for the scientists to chat with teenagers from schools all over the country. if you are interested in finding out what kids are asking about drugs in an anonymous format, it is very interesting to see what they are asking, and we also post the responses. we just completed our first ever national drugs facts week, which encourages community is to link teenagers what scientists so teenagers can find out scientifically accurate information. there is so much misinformation about drugs out there that this is our effort to put science into the middle of the conversation. more than 100 community is registered events this

with director kerlikowske's leadership, new ideas and a fresh approach, fresh approaches are being developed to prevent substance use and treat disorders and promote recovery. this year's theme, "together we learn together we heal," calls all of us to unite and encourage drug free living. treatment programs and family members and neighbors can all help assist those who experience addiction. and i have not met anyone in this country who through a friend, a colleague, a coworker, or a relative has not experienced some form of a very difficult situation as a result of the things that we are all trying to make better in this nation. intervention has helped put national awareness of this illness front and center and we're very proud of that. but we realize that there is much more that we can do to help, which is why last year a&e launched the recovery project, a wide-ranging initiative designed to help raise awareness that addiction is a treatable disease and recovery is possible. by working with the national recovery month partners and collaborating with leaders at samhsa and ondcp, the recovery

kerlikowske. we wl open it up to questions in a minute, but i wanted to make a couple of points about what -- what nida is doing to reach out to teens. we have a very robust website right now. we have a teen blog that is becoming very popular, and we do at least two entries a week. it is a steady increase in users. we just completed our fourth annual drug facts chat day where we sit up for the scientists to chat with teenagers from schools all over the country. if you are interested in finding out what kids are asking about drugs in an anonymous format, it is very interesting to see what they are asking, and we also post the responses. we just completed our first ever national drugs facts week, which encourages community is to link teenagers what scientists so teenagers can find out scientifically accurate information. there is so much misinformation about drugs out there that this is our effort to put science into the middle of the conversation. more than 100 community is registered events this y

so gil kerlikowske, the director of ondcp and i and lots of people at ondc are very, very proud to be working with the faces and voices of recovery, which is one of the organizations, and with samhsa on-on doing everything we possibly can to support this. alexandre, how important is that to have support for recovery as you're looking to conduct further studies in that field? well, it's critical because so far there's been an enormous amount of federal investment which has contributed landmark findings and really lifesaving findings in many ways, scientifically speaking, in terms of the ideology of addiction, what is the cause, as tom said, it's a brain disease, it's a biological condition, and it's really started to contribute significantly to moving away from the stigma where people looked at addiction, alcoholism, drug dependence as a moral failing or the person was just bad and weak to something where the person has a condition, which is perhaps chronic, but it is a condition that can be managed. so we have a science of addiction which has saved many lives. what we don't have is th

kerlikowske said, the media has to be well targeted. it can profoundly influence behavior for example, a tobacco smoking, and the same can be applied with marijuana. >> while we are on the subject of media campaigns, i wanted to mention something else we have seen related to smoking, and that is the young people are not seem nearly as much anti- smoking ad campaigns as they were two years ago. the settlement with the state attorneys general and the tobacco companies gave rise to a foundation that sponsored the national campaign -- the american legacy foundation, but that had a limited life. the amount of money that has been spent on that -- that is being spent on that campaign has dwindled. the other thing is that many states have their own anti- tobacco campaigns, and this is the pitch to state legislatures and governors. the state's got a great deal of money out of that settlement, and spent almost none of it on the prevention of tobacco use among kids. it is really quite a shame. i know the stakes are very stretched, but ultimately,

he is a pleasure to join director kerlikowske, and dr. volkow in releasing these founding digit findings. -- findings. in the spring, we gave health ministers questionnaires, confidential and anonymous, to some 46,000 students around the country. they are located in roughly 400 secondary schools. because of the size, we get a high dege of accuracy both in terms of levels and changes. these are students in eighth, 10, and 12th grades, and we separately sample each of those grades. they are both in public and private schools. this very well covered our youth population. if there are several findings i think that will be important. you have already heard some of them. first, marijuana use has continued in increase, and tt includes daily years. ecstasy is beginning to make a comeback after being out of favor for about five years. cigarette smoking is no longer declining, and there is evidence thats beginning to go up again. alcohol use continues its -- term decline, which is gradual, but nevertheless has reached storically low levels. madison