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Lothar121

More Teens Say Drugs Are Available In Their Schools
Rebecca Carroll | Houston Chronicle | 08/19/2005

WASHINGTON - More teens are saying there are drugs in their schools, and those who have access to them are more likely to try them, said a Columbia University survey released Thursday.

Twenty-eight percent of respondents reported that drugs are used, kept or sold at their middle schools, a 47 percent jump since 2002, according to the 10th annual teen survey by Columbia's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

The number of high schoolers saying drugs are at their schools rose 41 percent in the past three years, to 62 percent, the survey said.

Twelve- to 17-year-olds who report that there are drugs in their schools are three times likelier to try marijuana and twice as likely to drink alcohol than teens who say their schools are drug-free, the survey showed.

"Availability is the mother of use," said Joseph Califano Jr., the center's president. "We really are putting an enormous number of 12- to 17-year-olds at great risk."

Most of the teens surveyed — 58 percent — said the legality of cigarettes has no effect on their decision to smoke or abstain, and 48 percent said the fact that marijuana is illegal doesn't affect whether they use it.

Forty-two percent of the youths said they can buy marijuana within a day, and 21 percent can buy it in an hour.

The past year saw an 86 percent increase in the percentage of teens who know a friend or classmate who has abused prescription drugs, from 14 percent to 26 percent of teens surveyed.

Meanwhile, the survey found teens who viewed drugs as morally wrong were significantly less likely to try them, as were those who felt their parents would be "extremely upset" to discover drug use.

The report found that teens who confided in their parents were at much lower risk of drug abuse than teens who turn first to another adult.

"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."

The survey was conducted by phone and involved 1,000 randomly selected youths ages 12 to 17 and 829 parents.

Twenty-six percent of the teens said someone nearby could hear their answers. The margin of sampling error is 3.1 percentage points for teens and 3.4 percentage points for parents.

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fight4rights

I hear this a lot and it is a bunch of bull. Take a look at these graphs.

http://www.mpp.org/pdf/surveys_04.pdf

Over the last three decades the percentage of high school seniors saying that marijuana is easy to obtain has only varied from 81-91%. Obviously it is pretty easy to come by.

Now look at the percentage of people who have used marijuana. It has ranged from 2% to 11%, over a 500% difference. Even though the supply was incredibly stable, use fluctuated.

Look at the arrests graph. From 1991 to 2000 there was a tremendous increase in marijuana arrests. From 1992 to 2000 there was a 200% increase in the number of people using marijuana.

A simple look at the scientific data shows that availabilty doen't lead to increased use and locking people up will not deter them.

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Lothar121

I certainly agree with you that availability does not have a causal relationship with use, but there is probably some type or correlation in that it plays a factor. Nevertheless, assuming that there is a heavy correlation between use and availability, the clear answer is to legalize and regulate marijuana. Availability for alcohol is less than that of marijuana, and this has been shown several times over. Why? Obviously because vendors card for alcohol, drug dealers sell to kids without carding.

BC.Buddy

Yeah, most certainly.

We can't oppose these statistics. If they're showing that it's becoming more and more available to children, then we use it as an argument that prohibition has failed horribly and like Lothar said, compare it to alcohol/tobacco availability.

We should use this fact as a weapon, not a stumbling block. They'll use it to say that they should crack down more. That's when we step in and point out how ridiculous they are.

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Higher Logic

Eh, the DEA/ONDCP/Administration is like a broken record when it comes to marijuana, they keep repeating the same tired lines over and over again, never coming up with anything new.

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BC.Buddy

If you're trying to do the Canadian 'eh', it goes at the end of a statement.

Eh, it's not supposed to go at the beginning.

It's supposed to go at the end, eh?

CardBoardBox

I live on Vancouver island... Um. Well, I talked to my sister, she's fifteen. She says that is is extreamly easy to find somsone to buy marijuana off of. Two out of every three kids smokes it or knows someone that does and sells. Back when I was her age It was hard to find a decent dealer through school. =/

She says the majority of the grade nine's and up have drank before/already drink so... O-o; I'd guess I have to agree with it.

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fight4rights

I think of it this way. I don't care if meth and heroine (spell check?) start raining from the sky, I still wouldn't try them.

On the other hand, if I really wanted to try smoking marijuana for the first time, I wouldn't give up my search after an hour. If someone really wanted to try smoking I don't think they would give up because they had to look for an extra half hour or spend an extra five bucks.

The other argument I have a problem with is that if marijuana were legalized, many more people would smoke it. I don't buy this argument either. I'm sure that there would be a slight increase, but most people don't avoid marijuana because it is illegal. They do so because they don't like the risks associated with marijuana use.

I could legally smoke cigarettes right now, but I choose not because they would be detrimental to my health. I think that most people who don't smoke marijuana now would feel the same way if it were to become legal.