In Modesto, a 19-year-old put out a cigarette outside a Coffee Road minimart and said the statistics seem right. Still, Michael Serna, who attends Valley Business High School, said he sees "a lot of people our age that smoke."

He said he smokes occasionally with friends. "Our generation, it takes us awhile to realize smoking isn't good for you."

Mark Loeser, in charge of tobacco education for the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency, said a survey here probably would not find teen smoking numbers going down as much as they are nationwide.

"Youths are still using tobacco products, and they can still go into a store here and purchase them," he said.

The national survey from the University of Michigan also examined drug use and showed that most figures stayed about the same. More teens reported having used ecstasy, but the increases were less than in past years.

The tobacco and drug findings are part of the annual Monitoring the Future survey conducted for the federal government by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. The statistics are based on a survey of 44,300 students in public and private schools.

The teen smoking statistics:

• 12TH-GRADERS -- 29.5 percent surveyed had smoked in the 30 days before the survey, down from 31.4 percent in 2000. The peak in the 1990s was 36.5 percent, in 1997.
• 10TH-GRADERS -- 21.3 percent had smoked in the previous 30 days, down from 23.9 percent the year before. The peak came in 1996, at 30.4 percent.
• EIGHTH-GRADERS -- 12.2 percent had smoked in the previous 30 days, down from 14.6 percent the year before. The peak came in 1996, at 21 percent.

"These important declines in teen smoking did not just happen by chance," said Lloyd D. Johnston of the University of Michigan.

"A lot of individuals and organizations have been making concerted efforts to bring down the unacceptably high rates of smoking among our youth."

In the Northern San Joaquin Valley, the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency is planning to present anti-smoking messages at movie theaters and on radio stations.

Loeser is concerned about tobacco sales to underage youths.

Kids have little trouble buying

Recently, his office sent teen-agers into 168 stores in Modesto, Ceres, Hughson and Newman to see if clerks would sell to underage youths. Twenty-one store clerks were ready to sell cigarettes, chewing tobacco and cigars to the teens, Loeser said.

Public health officials lauded the survey's findings on drug use.

"Overall, drug use among America's teen-agers has remained level or declined for the fifth year in a row, and that's good news. But we must remain vigilant to the threats that heroin, ecstasy, marijuana, alcohol and other dangerous drugs pose to our youth," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a statement.

Thompson added that "the finding that fewer teen-agers are smoking is very encouraging as more teens are making smart choices that will help them avoid tobacco-related health threats."

John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy, characterized the findings as "good news, bad news."

The explosive increases in drug use seen in the early 1990s have stopped, he said, but still too many people use illegal drugs.

"It's time to make the anti-drug effort catch up to the anti- tobacco effort," he said.

Alcohol remains the most popular drug with teens, although a slight reduction was reported in 2001.

Just less than four-fifths of 12th-graders, 79.7 percent, said they had used alcohol at some point, down from 80.3 percent the year before. But those who admitted to having been drunk at some time rose from 62.3 percent to 63.9 percent.

For 10th-graders, 70.1 percent admitted some alcohol use, down from 71.4 percent. The share who said they had been drunk fell from 49.3 percent to 48.2 percent.

And among eighth-graders, 50.5 percent had had a drink, down from 51.7 percent, and those who had been drunk declined from 25.1 percent to 23.4 percent.

Study data is available online, www.monitoringthefuture.org.

Bee staff writer Kerry McCray contributed to this report.

Reprinted by permission of Modesto Bee.