Drug use down but fight continues

President Clinton's top drug official says there's been a dramatic fall in drug use by American teenagers.

The White House drug policy director, Barry McCaffrey, said the twenty-one percent fall over the past two years showed the success of efforts to tackle drug trafficking.

But he also said that there had been an explosive increase in the use of the drug ecstasy by young people.

Mr McCaffrey emphasised the need for continued work on prevention, education, and treatment -- as well as multi-national cooperation. He said that drug abuse had dropped by fifty percent in the last two decades, but fourteen million Americans still used illegal drugs last month alone. In his last report before stepping down later this month, General McCaffrey called on the incoming administration of President-elect George W Bush to continue the fight against drugs.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service