How Common Is Drug Abuse In Schools
Some areas of drug abuse in the United States have shown improving stats.
Cocaine use across the country appears to be down, for example, cause for rejoicing in all sectors that fight the scourge of drug addiction.
One area that does not seem to be improving, however, is the amount of drug selling and drug use that is occurring right inside our nation's schools.
By 2009, for example, 39.
9% of students were reporting using marijuana.
Also, the selling of illegal drugs had increased to 25.
6%.
This is a jaw-dropping number of students not only using drugs, but also selling them to their friends and strangers.
We seem to be reaching a tipping point where drug use in schools could actually become a situation where the majority of students are participating within a few years.
A Culture of Use One of the problems surely causing this increase in use among students is the culture of acceptance for several illegal drugs.
It's impossible to keep kids from doing something if not only their friends are saying it's okay, but movies and the media seem to agree.
Many, many movies in recent years have shown pot use to be socially acceptable, normal and cool.
While the statistics still show that the majority of Americans are not smoking marijuana, these movies and shows are trying to portray the idea that if not all Americans are doing it, at least all the cool ones are.
If we want to fight drug abuse among kids and teens, we have to change the culture of use they are growing up in.
When movies, TV and music stop portraying illegal drug use as desirable and beneficial to one's social position, we may see a decline in student use.
Effective Drug Education Data also shows that we're failing our students when it comes to providing them effective drug education.
It will never be possible to get students to stop using drugs (or to prevent them from using drugs in the first place), unless they really understand and believe that it is not in their best interest to do so.
Plenty of medical literature exists that shows smoking marijuana can cause respiratory problems and lung damage (including lung cancer), yet this information is somehow getting lost on students.
False information about marijuana on the "friend line" is outweighing solid medical fact.
While it's not new news that teenagers tend to believe what their friends tell them over the advice of their parents, this simply means that adults and educators have to work that much harder to get the truth about drug use across to young people.
Real Monitoring and Drug Control As much of the drug selling and drug use of today's students is actually occurring on campuses, schools need to improve their efforts to monitor, control and prevent drug use on their own grounds.
As many of today's high schools are huge, sprawling campuses with thousands of students, it's understandable that some schools may have difficulty watching every student at every part of the day.
This simply means, however, that schools may need to spend more of their budgets (in addition to more and effective drug education) on the staff and security required to maintain a presence in school hallways and across school grounds.
When students see that schools are actually serious about stopping drug use and eliminating drug selling, it will be that much harder for these actions to take place on campus.
It may not completely stop the problem of drug use, but it could be an effective start.
Cocaine use across the country appears to be down, for example, cause for rejoicing in all sectors that fight the scourge of drug addiction.
One area that does not seem to be improving, however, is the amount of drug selling and drug use that is occurring right inside our nation's schools.
By 2009, for example, 39.
9% of students were reporting using marijuana.
Also, the selling of illegal drugs had increased to 25.
6%.
This is a jaw-dropping number of students not only using drugs, but also selling them to their friends and strangers.
We seem to be reaching a tipping point where drug use in schools could actually become a situation where the majority of students are participating within a few years.
A Culture of Use One of the problems surely causing this increase in use among students is the culture of acceptance for several illegal drugs.
It's impossible to keep kids from doing something if not only their friends are saying it's okay, but movies and the media seem to agree.
Many, many movies in recent years have shown pot use to be socially acceptable, normal and cool.
While the statistics still show that the majority of Americans are not smoking marijuana, these movies and shows are trying to portray the idea that if not all Americans are doing it, at least all the cool ones are.
If we want to fight drug abuse among kids and teens, we have to change the culture of use they are growing up in.
When movies, TV and music stop portraying illegal drug use as desirable and beneficial to one's social position, we may see a decline in student use.
Effective Drug Education Data also shows that we're failing our students when it comes to providing them effective drug education.
It will never be possible to get students to stop using drugs (or to prevent them from using drugs in the first place), unless they really understand and believe that it is not in their best interest to do so.
Plenty of medical literature exists that shows smoking marijuana can cause respiratory problems and lung damage (including lung cancer), yet this information is somehow getting lost on students.
False information about marijuana on the "friend line" is outweighing solid medical fact.
While it's not new news that teenagers tend to believe what their friends tell them over the advice of their parents, this simply means that adults and educators have to work that much harder to get the truth about drug use across to young people.
Real Monitoring and Drug Control As much of the drug selling and drug use of today's students is actually occurring on campuses, schools need to improve their efforts to monitor, control and prevent drug use on their own grounds.
As many of today's high schools are huge, sprawling campuses with thousands of students, it's understandable that some schools may have difficulty watching every student at every part of the day.
This simply means, however, that schools may need to spend more of their budgets (in addition to more and effective drug education) on the staff and security required to maintain a presence in school hallways and across school grounds.
When students see that schools are actually serious about stopping drug use and eliminating drug selling, it will be that much harder for these actions to take place on campus.
It may not completely stop the problem of drug use, but it could be an effective start.
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