Pubdate: Thu, 06 Sep 2001
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2001 The Register-Guard
Contact:  http://www.registerguard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

HALF OF NATION'S SCHOOLS AREN'T DRUG-FREE

WASHINGTON - Half of all teen-agers this fall will attend a school at 
which drugs are sold, used or kept, according to a national 
organization that fights drug abuse.

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia 
University released a report Wednesday detailing drug use and 
availability among teens.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that, 
by the time students complete high school, 47 percent have smoked 
marijuana, 24 percent have used another illicit drug and 81 percent 
have drunk alcohol. They also estimate that 70 percent have smoked 
cigarettes.

The Columbia group's survey of 1,000 students found that half of all 
teen-agers said their school was not drug-free, meaning that students 
keep, use or sell drugs on school grounds.

Sixty percent of high school students said there were drugs on 
campus; 30 percent of middle school students said the same.

The random telephone survey of students age 12-17 was conducted Oct. 
20-Nov. 5, by QEV Analytics. It has a margin of error of plus or 
minus 3.1 percent.

The percentage of teen-agers who say there are drugs on campus has 
actually dropped since 1998, said Joseph Califano, a former secretary 
of health, education and welfare, who heads the group. But Califano 
said the high number of schools in which drugs are present is still 
unacceptable.

"When parents start to feel as strongly about drugs in schools as 
they do about asbestos in schools, we'll take a giant step forward," 
he said.

Califano said national efforts to keep schools drug-free have failed, 
primarily because drug-prevention lessons don't address the factors 
that lead students to experiment with drugs. Anti-drug programs 
abound, he said, but many aren't based on sound science and few are 
compatible with others.

Califano said zero-tolerance policies, by which students caught with 
drugs are expelled or suspended from school, are a double-edged 
sword, since they send a clear no-use message but also can encourage 
parents and friends of drug users to keep quiet out of fear the user 
will be punished severely.

Since 1996, the group's annual survey has consistently shown that 
only about one-third of 17-year-olds would report a drug user or 
seller at school.
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