What Works: Schools Without Drugs

Drugs in Schools. "It is a sad and sobering reality that trying drugs is no longer the exception among high school students. It is the norm." -California Attorney General John Van De Kemp Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1986. When 13- to 18-year-olds were asked to name the biggest problems facing young people today, drugs led their list. The proportion of teens with this perception has risen steadily in recent years. No other issue approaches this level of concern. Four out of five teens believe current laws against both the sale and the use of drugs (including marijuana) are not strict enough. -The Gallup Youth Surveys, 1985 and 1986. The foremost responsibility of any society is to nurture and protect its children. In America today, the most serious threat to the health and well-being of our children is drug use. For the past year and a half, I have had the privilege of teaching our children in the classrooms of this country. I have met some outstanding teachers and administrators and many wonderful children. I have taken time during these visits to discuss the problem of drug use with educators and with police officers working in drug enforcement across the country. Their experience confirms the information reported in major national studies: drug use by children is at alarming levels. Use of some of the most harmful drugs is increasing. Even more troubling is the fact that children are using drugs at younger ages. Students today identify drugs as a major problem among their schoolmates as early as the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades. Drug use impairs memory, alertness, and achievement. Drugs erode the capacity of students to perform in school, to think and act responsibly. The consequences of using drugs can last a lifetime. The student who cannot read at age 8 can, with effort, be taught at 9. But when a student clouds his mind with drugs, he may become a lifelong casualty. Research tells us that students who use marijuana regularly are twice as likely as their classmates to average D's and F's, and we know that drop-outs are twice as likely to be frequent drug users as graduates. In addition, drug use disrupts the entire school. When drug use and drug dealing are rampant-when many students often do not show up for class and teachers cannot control them when they do-education throughout the school suffers. Drug use is found among students in the city and country, among the rich, the poor, and the middle class. Many schools have yet to implement effective drug enforcement measures. In some schools, drug deals at lunch are common. In others, intruders regularly enter the building to sell drugs to students. Even schools with strict drug policies on paper do not always enforce them effectively. Schools Without Drugs provides a practical synthesis of the most reliable and significant findings available on drug use by school-age youth. It tells how extensive drug use is and how dangerous it is. It tells how drug use starts, how it progresses, and how it can be identified. Most important, it tells how it can be stopped. It recommends strategies-and describes particular communities-that have succeeded in beating drugs. It concludes with a list of resources and organizations that parents, students, and educators can turn to for help.