ANTI-DRUG FUNDING ERODES AS TEEN USE CLIMBS.

Byline: Keith Stone Daily News Staff Writer

While Republicans and Democrats try to establish who's most to blame for rising drug use among children, the 12- and 13-year-olds at Sun Valley Middle School collect leaflets - invitations to get high.

Printed on home computers and often handed out by high school students, these fliers advertise ``DPs'' or ``kickbacks,'' ditching parties where marijuana, cocaine, beer, LSD and speed are abundant.

``But none of that shooting up, like heroin,'' said one girl, 13. ``None of that - not yet.''

They put into words what a recent California survey has found - that drug use among teen-agers is back up after hitting an all-time low in the early 1990s.

The California study came just after a national study reported that drug use among teens had jumped by 105 percent between 1992 and 1995.

Almost immediately, Democrats and Republicans began wielding these dismaying results as election-year cudgels against each other in their race to the White House.

Yet the reality for Los Angeles schools is that both parties are responsible for cutting money - leaving just two-thirds of the amount set aside in 1991 for drug, alcohol and tobacco education.

No one claims that anti-drug programs will solve a problem as complex as drug use, but teachers, administrators and students alike argue that these efforts are indispensable.

And they say politics has no place in the push against drugs.

``We need to have consistency of programs and trust, too. But we haven't because we've had inconsistency of support and funding, and it is because it has been a political issue,'' said Ruth Rich, director of drug, alcohol and tobacco education programs for the school district.

State and federal contributions to the nation's second-largest school district have been cut from $12 million in 1991 to $7.8 million in 1996.

Hardest hit was the IMPACT program, the district's flagship anti-drug effort for students in sixth through 12th grade. IMPACT convenes groups of students and counselors for weekly sessions to discuss drugs and the array of problems that adolescents must endure.

IMPACT got $7.8 million in 1991; this year it is slated to get $4 million, down from $4.3 the previous year.

In a letter to Board of Education member David Tokofsky, Rich has asked for the district to fill the gap and help pay for IMPACT.

``Add a few IMPACT groups,'' she said in an interview, ``and save a few lives.''

Much of the IMPACT money comes to the district under the federal Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. But that grant has fallen steadily since 1991 from $623 million to $465 in 1996, the victim of Democratic and Republican Congresses.

``It is Congress. The president has requested additional funds in each of these years,'' said William Modzelski, director of the grant program for the U.S. Department of Education.

This year, Clinton has asked for $540 million.

``It can't be a partisan issue,'' Modzelski said. ``Both parties - three parties, whatever you have in this country - need to sit down and talk about the most effective response to drug prevention.''

``These things don't come for nothing. I have always argued that you can't do prevention on the cheap,'' he said.

Further diluting the schools' share was the federal government's decision to include anti-violence measures under the grant. That meant the money would be used for metal detectors and security guards, in addition to drug education.

Another integral component is the California Alcohol and Drug Prevention Education program, which was administered by the Governor's Office of Criminal Justice Planning.

The program was eliminated entirely in 1992 during budget negotiations between a Democratic-controlled Legislature and Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, said Mike Borunda, deputy director of programs at the Governor's Office of Criminal Justice Planning.

Regardless, it cost the state's anti-drug effort $30 million, of which Los Angeles schools lost nearly $3 million.

Schools felt the pinch from yet another corner when money collected under Proposition 99, a 25-cent-a-pack tax on cigarettes, was diverted away from education to health and medical programs.

In its first year, the measure gave schools $32.6 million. Wilson in 1991 ordered the calculation changed so that more money went to health and medical programs tied to tobacco use.

As a result, schools statewide got just $14.9 million in 1996. Los Angeles' share went from $2.8 million in 1991 to just $1.1 million in 1996.

Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh said the money was redirected with concurrence from four-fifths of the Legislature for the sole reason that California's recession left no other choice.

``One had to make critical budget decisions when you are talking about public health,'' he said.

The American Lung Association, American Heart Association and other anti-smoking groups objected strongly to the change. They went to court and won an order that money be returned to the schools.

Wilson has filed appeals. Meanwhile, his office has restored the money, giving schools $40 million this year.

Altogether the cutbacks have taken a large bite out of drug prevention.

For Granada Hills High School, it has meant eliminating the full-time IMPACT coordinator and paring student sessions from 35 a week to just 15.

From $48,677 to pay teachers and buy materials for a semester in 1991, the IMPACT money was reduced to less than half, just $19,249 for the same period in 1996.

Shirley Bryant, a physiology and biology teacher, was IMPACT coordinator last semester, but only for two hours a day, officially. She said she ended up spending personal time with students.

``The kids kept coming and coming and coming, asking: Can we get in an IMPACT group?'' she recalled. ``But we had nowhere to put them. It really is difficult for me to say no, I don't have a group to put you in. So I said I will see you myself.''

Sun Valley Middle School has managed to keep its IMPACT program nearly intact by shifting money and eliminating such positions as the attendance counselor.

``You make it a school priority,'' said Assistant Principal Laura Hall. ``This is an age when they experiment. If we can nip it in the bud now - high school is just too late.''

Gail Bluestone knows all too well.

As the IMPACT coordinator at Sun Valley, ``Blue'' - as she is known - has seen how students can be persuaded to use drugs, just to fit in.

``Kids are at risk from peer pressure,'' she said. ``It doesn't matter what neighborhood you live in and how old you are, especially if you live in Los Angeles.''

It wasn't at all like this when she went to junior high school in Atlantic City, N.J., during the 1960s.

``No one would have thought of coming to school with even alcohol,'' Bluestone said.

``Have you seen drugs on campus?'' she asked a group of girls during a recent IMPACT session.

``Yes,'' they replied in chorus.

At home it's no better.

Just ask a 12-year-old girl who says she worries that her 8-year-old brother will give into the temptation to smoke ``bud,'' a term for marijuana - just like her older brother does at home.

``I tell him no,'' she said. ``I tell him that just messes you up.''