Marijuana Policy Project

At Northwestern College in Orange City, Darla Hettinga, an administrative assistant in the student development office, said known marijuana use is so low it's almost nonexistent.

Hettinga, who handles discipline for the Christian college, said marijuana incidents are "very minimal."

"I wouldn't say it's huge," Hettinga said.

The school has more problems with student alcohol use, she said.

She commented after the government reported Thursday on the use of marijuana by national regions and found that two college towns, Boston and Boulder, Colo., shared lead in marijuana use.

Northwestern Iowa had the lowest use of any of the regions surveyed. What's more, northeast Iowa had the second-lowest total and central Iowa the fourth-lowest.

From a Christian perspective, students probably know marijuana is something they should not be doing, Hettinga said.

In nearby Buena Vista County, Sheriff Department spokesman Deputy Doug Simons said that in terms of marijuana prosecutions and arrests, the numbers are down from the past.

In the last four or five years, "we've made a lot fewer marijuana arrests," Simons said.

Now many more of the cases are for methamphetamine, he said, but reducing those for marijuana is still a point of pride.

"If we've eliminated one of the drugs of abuse . . . we're certainly happy about that," Simons said.

The most recent arrests over the past year or two were for smaller amounts of marijuana possession, he said.

Roxanne Johnson with the Department of Public Safety's Division of Narcotics Enforcement also said that most of the recent cases are for methamphetamine, not marijuana.

The statewide marijuana seizures, mainly along the interstates, are also few, she said, with about four or five a month.

For the first time, the U.S. government looked at the use of drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and various other substances, legal as well as illegal, by region rather than by state for its report Thursday.

Regions could be as specific as Riverside, Calif., or as broad as all of the state of New York (minus New York City). Federal officials say the information will help states decide where they should spend money for treatment and prevention programs.

For marijuana, 5.1 percent of people around the country reported using marijuana in the previous 30 days. In Boston, the home of Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern and several other colleges, 12.2 percent reported using marijuana in the previous 30 days.

In Boulder County, the home of the University of Colorado, 10.3 percent reported using marijuana during the same time period.

John Auerbach, executive director of the public health commission for the city of Boston, said the survey might not reflect current marijuana use in Boston because the data came from 1999-2001 national surveys.

Auerbach also acknowledged that the data may reflect the city's significant 20-something population.

"College students in general have a more relaxed attitude about marijuana than other age groups. But in general, I don't think Boston has a markedly differently perspective on marijuana than other parts of the country."

The federal report doesn't explain why certain regions fare worse than others when it comes to smoking pot or cigarettes, or for heavy alcohol use, only that they do.