Drugs in Schools

The following are two quotes from CASA, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.  Their website is http://www.casacolumbia.org.

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 19, 2010 – Twenty-seven percent of public school students ages 12 to 17 say that their school is both gang- and drug-infected (drugs are used, kept or sold on school grounds), according to the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XV: Teens and Parents, the 15th annual back-to-school survey conducted by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA*) at Columbia University. This means that 5.7 million public school students attend schools which are both gang- and drug-infected.

“The combination of gangs and drugs in a school is a malignant cancer that must be eliminated if we are to be able to improve public education in our nation,” said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA Founder and Chairman and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. “It is outrageous for states and localities to require parents to send their children to public schools infected with gangs and drugs. If adults faced gangs and drugs at their factories or offices each day they would protest, call the police, and if that failed, change jobs. Yet parents in many communities are expected to send their children to the same school, day after day, to face the menace of gangs and drugs.”

These are startling statistics and information that any parent of a pre-teen or teenager would want to be aware of. My children are in their 20′s and 30′s now, but clearly my complete awareness of this problem did not come to fruition until I experienced my own children’s dependence on drugs after they had completed high school. For so many families, this is the case, and by then their child has been using for many years. Parent education seems to me, one of the major keys to helping to prevent drug and alcohol use in teenagers. For states with budget problems, education funds will be cut. Funds for parent education are basically non-existent. We observed Red Ribbon Week, every fall in the public school system, but it is not nearly enough.  Something that might be helpful, would be for parents to hear a young adult tell their addiction story, especially if the recovering addict is from their community.  They would feel the connection and understand that this is something that could happen to their child.  For me, that would have had an impact.  Energy and resources need to be put to this cause, but unfortunately during this present financial climate, that will be difficult to do.  Many wasted years, as well as the financial burden of trying to help an addicted young adult is the unfortunate situation too many parents are facing today.

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