SCoSA promotes Substance Abuse Free Environments [SAFE]

Published: Aug 19, 2005
 

More Drugs In Schools, CASA Survey Says

 

 

A survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse [CASA] finds that 28

percent of middle-school students say that drugs are available in their schools, up 47 percent since 2002, the Associated Press reported Aug. 18.

Among high-school students surveyed, 62 percent said that drugs were used, kept, or sold in their schools, up 47 percent.

Students who reported drugs being available in  their schools were three times more likely to try marijuana and twice as likely to drink alcohol as those who said drugs were not available. "Availability is  the mother of use," said CASA President Joseph Califano Jr.

Those who viewed drug use as morally wrong or who believed their parents would be  extremely upset about them using drugs were -- unsurprisingly -- less likely to experiment with drugs.  So were kids who said they were comfortable confiding in their parents.

"If this survey does anything, it really shouts to parents: You cannot outsource your responsibility to law enforcement or the  schools," Califano said. "I think when parents feel as strongly about drugs in the schools as they do about asbestos in the schools, we'll start getting the  drugs out of the schools."