The National Institute of Mental Health is continuing support of several studies designed to measure trends in the use of hallucinogens. Indications are that the evidence for persisting psychological and birth defect damage from chronic LSD use is minimal. Though they are a continuing problem, admissions to psychiatric units of persons with "bad trips" are declining. About five percent of those college students polled admitted using LSD. While a minority of these users suffer severe psychiatric problems from drug abuse, there is a decline in admissions to college health services of students with LSD reactions. Marihuana use among students is, on the other hand, on the rise. Of immediate concern is the potential effect of any reality-distorting agent on the future psychological development of the adolescent user. To understand the problem of drug abuse, it is necessary to look beyond specific agents to the underlying causes of students reliance on drugs. Today's alienated yough reject society and its institutions as being irrelevant and seek to alter their own world through drug use. Such societal rejection makes urgent the development of new approaches to bridge the generation gap. (CJ)