Pubdate: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 Source: El Paso Times (TX) Copyright: 2007 El Paso Times Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/829 Author: Daniel Borunda, El Paso Times Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) COCAINE FOUND ON LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS The discovery of a student with cocaine at Ysleta High School earlier this year is part of ongoing concerns over drugs in El Paso schools. Cocaine is far less common than marijuana, but the powerful stimulant has been discovered on campuses at least a dozen times this academic year, school district officials said. "The districts don't have a drug problem. The drug problem is a community problem," said Victor Araiza, interim chief for the El Paso Independent School District Police Department. EPISD has had five cocaine cases this year and the Socorro Independent School District has had six, officials said. Figures weren't available for the Ysleta Independent School District. In January, an El Paso police officer assigned to Ysleta High School arrested an 18-year-old student on campus with less than a gram of cocaine, what's considered a personal-use amount, police spokesman Javier Sambrano said. In December, a 17-year-old woman was caught with 36 plastic baggies, or 13 grams, of cocaine at the El Paso Job Corps Center campus. In March 2006, 12 seventh-grade students allegedly had cocaine at Garcia-Enriquez Middle School in San Elizario. Despite those examples, El Paso police and juvenile court prosecutors said they had seen neither an increase nor a decrease in cocaine use among teens. The national 2006 Monitoring the Future survey found that 8.5 percent of 12th-graders reported using cocaine in their lifetime, the Office of National Drug Control Policy stated. Powdered cocaine was "fairly easy" or "very easy" to obtain, 42.5 percent of high school seniors responded. El Paso, Socorro and Ysleta district officials said they try to be proactive with police officers assigned to each high school, using drug-sniffing dogs and offering anti-drug education. Criminal charges are also increased if illegal drugs are found on campus or other designated drug-free zones. "I think it's a sign of the times," said Chief Michael Czerwinsky of the Socorro Independent School District Police Department. "For us, one case is one too many." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman