School shootings and alleged hit lists draw media attention like bees to sticky-sweet honey. They get parents’ attention, too. But today’s teens are more likely to feel the sting of another American scourge: substance abuse.

The awareness drive about to be kicked off by Rowan County Substance Abuse Coalition comes not a moment too soon.

The list of possible assailants on this community’s young people is hundreds of names long. It starts with the old standbys: beer, booze, marijuana. It incorporates modern innovations: Ritalin, Ecstasy, GHB and Rohypnol, the date rape drug.

The list includes well-known dangers such as cocaine and heroine and surprising ones, like correction fluid and cooking spray.

Despite the 1980s campaign to “just say no” and the 1990s’ egg-in-the-frying-pan warnings — “This is your brain on drugs” —the problem has escalated. A new generation of potential users is coming of age, and they are immune to old slogans.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last summer that drug use among American teen-agers has significantly increased.

Half of the teens who participated in a confidential survey of youths in grades nine through 12 had a least one drink of alcohol in the previous month. Thirty-five percent had smoked cigarettes, 27 percent had smoked marijuana and 4 percent had tried cocaine — all within the past 30 days.

Alcohol is still the drug of choice, perhaps because of its ready availability. The study showed that one-third of the students had five or more drinks of alcohol at least once. Figures for cocaine and marijuana use were higher than those from a 1993 study.

And here’s every parent’s and trooper’s nightmare:The CDC report found that 33 percent of teens had ridden in the past month with a driver who had been drinking alcohol. To that you can most likely add, “a young inexperienced driver” who had been drinking alcohol — a disastrous combination.

Fifteen percent had used inhalants (hence the reference to correction fluid and cooking spray) in their lifetime, and 9 percent had used methamphetamines.

Americans have heard the drug-warning message so many times that it’s easier to tune it out than to think of new solutions. But here in Rowan County, the need for awareness has reached a new high. The 1999 needs assessment conducted by the local United Way found substance abuse among teens —and the need to create positive alternative activities —among the community’s most pressing issues.

So Rowan now has a task force focusing on the issue and a coordinator, Emily Perry at the Health Department, to head up the effort. Next week, they’re bringing in Bill Oliver, a well-known speaker on drug abuse, to raise awareness among parents, elected officials and school personnel.

Think of it as a beginning —the beginning of a concerted community effort to give the fight against drug abuse more that mere lip service.