Study: "Drug Infested" Schools On Rise
More Teens Report Drug Problems At Their Schools, But Parents Are In Denial
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Play CBS Video Video Drugs Are Rampant In Schools According to a new study, millions of America's middle and high-schoolers are attending schools where drugs are readily available. Byron Pitts reports.
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(AP)
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Interactive Substance Abuse In America Get the facts on a national problem. Find out where to get help, learn how drugs affect the body and compare state drunk-driving laws.
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Interactive Education In America Backpack ready? Learn more about education in America through fun facts, national statistics and unusual schools.
The percentage of teens who say they attend high schools with drug problems has increased from 44 percent to 61 percent since 2002, and the percentage in middle schools has increased from 19 percent to 31 percent, according to the survey to be released Thursday by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.
And such activity is not easily hidden: The study has found that eight in 10 high schoolers and 44 percent of middle schoolers have witnessed illegal drug use, dealing or possession, or have seen students high or drunk on school grounds.
Thirty-one percent have witnessed this activity at least once a week.
According to the study, 17 percent of high school students say they could buy marijuana somewhere on their campus in an hour, while 37 percent say they could do it in a day, reports CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts.
Some 13 percent of teens said they had tried marijuana, and 4 percent said they had used it in the past month. (Such survey results are often understated because respondents are hesitant to admit such drug use.)
The group calls institutions where illicit drug use is so rampant as "drug infested," and says popular kids who attending such schools are five and a half times more likely to use drugs than the same teens at drug-free schools.
"Those kids who consider themselves among the most popular were likely to get drunk at least once a month, likely to use drugs, likely to smoke marijuana," Joseph Califano, the center's chairman and president, told CBS News Early Show anchor Harry Smith. "The world these kids are living in, that's cool. We've got to change that."
"It has become such a commonplace experience for teens that their concern about it has come down," said Califano.
And with drug use becoming embedded in the high school experience, despair and denial are increasingly characterizing parents' attitudes.
Of parents queried in the survey, only 11 percent said drugs are their child's biggest concern. Asked how they'd feel if their kids smoked pot, 48 percent of parents said they were more worried about sex, 52 percent about shoplifting, and 82 percent about their child driving while intoxicated.
Califano, a former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, recommends that parents pull their kids out of schools where drug dangers are high.
"Parents refuse to send their kids to a school when asbestos is there." Califano told CBS News correspondant Barry Bagnato. "They'd refuse to send their kids to school if it were infested with rats.
"They've got to start saying, 'I'm not going to allow this situation to continue where my kids have to go to a school where drugs are used, kept and sold, or where they're going to see classmates that are high or drunk," Califano said.
The survey also found:
- About six in 10 parents of teens at schools with a drug problem say they believe the goal of making that school drug free is unrealistic.
- Most parents (86 percent) say drinking is a big part of the college experience, but only 29 percent think their own teens will do a lot of drinking in college.
- Students who consider themselves popular were more likely to use drugs, drink or smoke than students who do not view themselves as popular.
The survey of 1,063 teens from 12 to 17 years old and 550 parents was conducted from April 2 to May 13 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for the teen sample and 4 percentage points for the parents.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





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See all 26 CommentsBTW it was Nixon who started the war on drugs. he ignored his commission and really started the war based on racism and anti certain cultures (Jews for one).
The government is going to hold out as long as possible. For some reason each president gets the word. Each republican politico gets the word. Case in point is Senator Coleman who smoked up a strom in college but is now on the drug war band wagon.
Consider this a WPA project that is keeping people employed, militarizing the police, and harming Americans. Humm who are the terrorists (the DEAth???)
Did you realize how fast the patriot Act was created? that many pages in almost a week. Folks it was the Drug War Act before 9/11 and had a hard time passing, put a different name on it and surprise we have something no politician could resist and voted on without reading.
The government nasty''s got what they wanted - more militarization of the police, walls to lock us in and more control over the population all thing things the Drug War actt wanted.
Sick and more sick
The only sensible answer.
limestoneman
The - Federal Drug Smuggling Program.
In - Oct 2005 :- FBI Director - "Robert Mueller" - announced :
The FBI would begin to Hire People.
Who had a history of smoking : "Marijuana"
Remember during the "Reagan - Bush" Administration.
Air America a small : "Air Freight Company."
Was caught - Smuggling drugs into the US.
The Smugglers said : "They had been ordered to do it by :
"The White House"
VP Cheney owns a small - "Air Freight" - Company in Northern Idaho
A couple of minutes from the : Canadian Wilderness
In December 2006, - The FBI - Was looking for someone to :
Deliver a Large amount of : "Clean - Unaccountable" money.
A few days Later - VP Cheney announced : He would appear at
that small Air Freight Company.
Upon landing - He announced : if anyone wanted to see him
They would have to give a - Cash Donation.
Large amounts of Drugs in schools
This is the Result of Another - Bush-Cheney - Drug Operation
Want a good paying job? - Head on down to your local - "FBI"
Tell them - You want to Smuggle Drugs and You want the Full Protection of
The Justice Department.
The American Public - Doesn''t - Need to know that :
There is a Large Amount of Drugs in Grade Schools.
The American Public needs to Know - How those Drugs got there
The American Public needs to Know - Who - Smuggled those Drugs ! !
Little wonder Why - The Justice Department will - "Not" - File
Criminal Complaints against the : Bush Administration
They Themselves are all : "Stoned"
Lastdance
This was a really poorly done piece of reporting.
The above is a stupid statement. Pull the kids out of school and do what with them? All parents cannot home school...the parents will just face truancy charges.
"ALL" the schools in my small rural community are drug ridden. The population here is approx 99% white. I am not sure what the solution is. One of my kids was on drugs...I packed her and her drugs up and drove her to the police station and had her arrested. She hated me at the time but today thanks me and she is drug free.
STOP THE MADNESS!
www.leap.cc
www.mpp.org
puff puff
We don''t need no thoughts controlled,
cough cough
No dark sarcasm in the classroom,
puff puff
Teacher leave them kids alone,
exhale
Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone!!!
:)
'' ... at age 5, detention harbored the lunches of the supervising cafeteria staff in the adjoining room, i had no use for detentions run by cafeteria staffs after that. at 10, all the kids played get sick tax world in the woods by the playground at recess, i had no use for school staffs after that. at fourteen, the police put me to work threatening me with a fair trial, i had no use for police after that. when i was seventeen, incognito soldiers chased incognito soldiers through school halls screaming ''look what i''m teaching them'' ''look what i''m teaching them'', i had no use for soldiers after that ... ''
'' ... some folk spend most of their time reminding everyone that most folk most time dance get well feed world songs and medical you are here map song dance skit kits rallied around the sick beds drifting the spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle first aid lunch farm cottage studio trails, while most folk most time live it ... ''
'' ... eternal story boards swimming in oceans of eternal story boards ... ''
'' ... the u.s. civil war is a wierd irony: an entire civil war fought to save the slaves of people that invest all their money in those that
reward them with non charity and all their votes in those that reward them with taxation at gunpoint ... ''
'' ... look, naked ignorant lazy profane blemished kids: let''s chase ''em through the gardens and criticize them till they scream and cry and behave! ...''
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See all 26 Comments