Drugs in School Survey

Drugs in School Survey

The survey included 1,063 teens between the ages of 12 and 17 and 550 parents of teens, half of whom had children who also completed the survey.

Teens were asked if drugs were “used, kept, or sold” at their schools. Based on these answers, schools were considered either “drug free” or “drug infested.”

Also based on the survey answers, researchers concluded that drug use in middle and high schools is on the rise.

The number of students who said they attended schools where drugs are used, kept, or sold increased by 20% between 2006 and 2007 among high-schoolers and 35% among middle-schoolers.

“This is a real increase,” Califano tells WebMD. “And the trend was the same regardless of where the school was or whether it was public or private.”

In fact, the biggest increases in drug exposure were reported in private middle and high schools.

There was a 38% reported increase between 2006 and 2007 in teens attending private high schools who are exposed to drugs at school, compared with a 16% increase among teens attending public high schools.

“Here in New York City the private schools are riddled with drugs, and it is the same in Washington, D.C., and other major cities,” Califano says. “There is no safe harbor for kids.”

Califano says he was most surprised by the responses to questions exploring drug use and popularity.

Overall, one in five teens surveyed said the most popular kids in their school had a reputation for using illegal drugs, and 32% said these popular teens frequently drank alcohol.

But teens attending drug-infested schools were 5.5 times more likely than other teens to answer in the affirmative when asked if the popular kids at their school did drugs. They were three times more likely to say the popular kids drank heavily.

Compared with popular teens at drug-free school, teens who considered themselves popular at schools where drugs were present were:

• At least 10 times more likely to have used prescription drugs to get high (10% vs. 0%).
• 9 times more likely to have used an illegal drug other than marijuana or prescription drugs (9% vs. 1%).
• 5 times more likely to get drunk in a typical month (17% vs. 3%).