What Works: Schools Without Drugs Part 2

Drugs are a serious problem not only in high schools, but now in middle and elementary schools as well.

All illegal drugs are dangerous; there is no such thing as safe or responsible use of illegal drugs.

Although drug trafficking is controlled by adults, the immediate source of drugs for most students is other students.

Continuing misconceptions about the drug problem stand in the way of corrective action. The following section outlines the nature and extent of the problem and summarizes the latest research on the effects of drugs on students and schools.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Chart 2_

Percentage of High School Seniors Who Have Used Cocaine

Source: Inst.i.tute for Social Research 1986]

Extent of Drug Use

Drug use is widespread among American schoolchildren. The United States has the highest rate of teenage drug use of any industrialized nation. The drug problem in this country is 10 times greater than in j.a.pan, for example. Sixty-one percent of high school seniors have used drugs. Marijuana use remains at an unacceptably high level; 41 percent of 1985 seniors reported using it in the last year, and 26 percent said they had used it at least once in the previous month. Thirteen percent of seniors indicated that they had used cocaine in the past year. This is the highest level ever observed, more than twice the proportion in 1975.

Many students purchase and use drugs at school. A recent study of teenagers contacting a cocaine hotline revealed that 57 percent of the respondents bought most of their drugs at school. Among 1985 high school seniors, one-third of the marijuana users reported that they had smoked marijuana at school. Of the seniors who used amphetamines during the past year, two-thirds reported having taken them at school.

The drug problem affects all types of students. All regions and all types of communities show high levels of drug use. Forty-three percent of 1985 high school seniors in nonmetropolitan areas reported illicit drug use in the previous year, while the rate for seniors in large metropolitan areas was 50 percent. Although higher proportions of males are involved in illicit drug use, especially heavy drug use, the gap between the s.e.xes is lessening. The extent to which high school seniors reported having used marijuana is about the same for blacks and whites; for other types of drugs reported, use is slightly higher among whites.

Initial drug use occurs at an increasingly early age. The percentage of students using drugs by the sixth grade has tripled over the last decade. In the early 1960's, marijuana use was virtually nonexistent among 13-year-olds, but now about one in six 13-year-olds has used marijuana.

Fact Sheet

Drugs and Dependence

Drugs cause physical and emotional dependence. Users may develop an overwhelming craving for specific drugs, and their bodies may respond to the presence of drugs in ways that lead to increased drug use.

Regular users of drugs develop _tolerance_, a need to take larger doses to get the same initial effect. They may respond by combining drugs--frequently with devastating results. Many teenage drug users calling a national cocaine hotline report that they take other drugs just to counteract the unpleasant effects of cocaine.

Certain drugs, such as opiates and barbiturates, create _physical dependence_. With prolonged use, these drugs become part of the body chemistry. When a regular user stops taking the drug, the body experiences the physiological trauma known as _withdrawal_.

_Psychological dependence_ occurs when drug taking becomes the center of the user's life. Among children, psychological dependence erodes school performance and can destroy ties to family, friendships, outside interests, values, and goals. The child goes from taking drugs to feel good, to taking them to keep from feeling bad. Over time, drug use itself heightens the bad feelings and can leave the user suicidal. _More than half of all adolescent suicides are drug-related._

_Drugs and their harmful side effects can remain in the body long after use has stopped._ The extent to which a drug is retained in the body depends on the drug's chemical composition, that is, whether or not it is fat-soluble. Fat-soluble drugs such as marijuana, phencyclidine (PCP), and lysergic acid (LSD) seek out and settle in the fatty tissues. As a result, they build up in the fatty parts of the body such as the brain. Such acc.u.mulations of drugs and their slow release over time may cause delayed effects (flashbacks) weeks and even months after drug use has stopped.

How Drug Use Develops

Social influences play a key role in making drug use attractive to children.

The first temptations to use drugs may come in social situations in the form of pressures to "act grown up" and "have a good time" by smoking cigarettes or using alcohol or marijuana.

A 1983 _Weekly Reader_ survey found that television and movies had the greatest influence on fourth graders in making drugs and alcohol seem attractive; other children had the second greatest influence. From the fifth grade on, peers played an increasingly important role, while television and movies consistently had the second greatest influence.

The survey offers insights into _why_ students take drugs. For all children, the most important reason for taking marijuana is to "fit in with others." "To feel older" is the second main reason for children in grades four and five, and "to have a good time" for those in grades six to twelve. This finding reinforces the need for prevention programs beginning in the early grades--programs that focus on teaching children to resist peer pressure and on making worthwhile and enjoyable drug-free activities available to them.

Students who turn to more potent drugs usually do so after first using cigarettes and alcohol, and then marijuana. Initial attempts may not produce a "high"; however, students who continue to use drugs learn that drugs can alter their thoughts and feelings. _The greater a student's involvement with marijuana, the more likely it is the student will begin to use other drugs in conjunction with marijuana._

Drug use frequently progresses in stages--from occasional use, to regular use, to multiple drug use, and ultimately to total dependency.

With each successive stage, drug use intensifies, becomes more varied, and results in increasingly debilitating effects.

But this progression is not inevitable. Drug use can be stopped at any stage. However, the more involved children are with drugs, the more difficult it is for them to stop. _The best way to fight drug use is to begin prevention efforts before children start using drugs._ Prevention efforts that focus on young children are the most effective means to fight drug use.

Fact Sheet

Cocaine: Crack

Cocaine use is the fastest growing drug problem in America. Most alarming is the recent availability of cocaine in a cheap but potent form called crack or rock. Crack is a purified form of cocaine that is smoked.

_Crack is inexpensive to try._ Crack is available for as little as $10. As a result, the drug is affordable to many new users, including high school and even elementary school students.

_Crack is easy to use._ It is sold in pieces resembling small white gravel or soap chips and is sometimes pressed into small pellets. Crack can be smoked in a pipe or put into a cigarette.

Because the visible effects disappear within minutes after smoking, it can be used at almost any time during the day.

_Crack is extremely addictive._ Crack is far more addictive than heroin or barbiturates. Because crack is smoked, it is quickly absorbed into the blood stream. It produces a feeling of extreme euphoria, peaking within seconds. The desire to repeat this sensation can cause addiction within a few days.

_Crack leads to crime and severe psychological disorders._ Many youths, once addicted, have turned to stealing, prost.i.tution, and drug dealing in order to support their habit. Continued use can produce violent behavior and psychotic states similar to schizophrenia.

_Crack is deadly._ Cocaine in any form can cause cardiac arrest and death by interrupting the brain's control over the heart and respiratory system.

Effects of Drug Use

The drugs students are taking today are more potent, more dangerous, and more addictive than ever.

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the effects of drugs. Drugs threaten normal development in a number of ways:

Drugs can interfere with memory, sensation, and perception. They distort experiences and cause a loss of self-control that can lead users to harm themselves and others.

Drugs interfere with the brain's ability to take in, sort, and synthesize information. As a result, sensory information runs together, providing new sensations while blocking normal ability to understand the information received.

Drugs can have an insidious effect on perception; for example, cocaine and amphetamines often give users a false sense of functioning at their best while on the drug.

Drug suppliers have responded to the increasing demand for drugs by developing new strains, producing reprocessed, purified drugs, and using underground laboratories to create more powerful forms of illegal drugs. Consequently, users are exposed to heightened or unknown levels of risk.

The _marijuana_ produced today is from five to 20 times stronger than that available as recently as 10 years ago. Regular use by adolescents has been a.s.sociated with an "a motivational syndrome," characterized by apathy and loss of goals. Research has shown that severe psychological damage, including paranoia and psychosis, can occur when marijuana contains 2 percent THC, its major psychoactive ingredient. Since the early 1980s, most marijuana has contained from 4 to 6 percent THC--two to three times the amount capable of causing serious damage.

_Crack_, now becoming widely available, is a purified and highly addictive form of cocaine.

_Phencyclidine_ (_PCP_), first developed as an animal tranquilizer, has unpredictable and often violent effects. Often children do not even know that they are using this drug when PCP-laced parsley in cigarette form is pa.s.sed off as marijuana, or when PCP in crystal form is sold as lysergic acid (LSD).

Some of the new _"designer" drugs_, slight chemical variations of existing illegal drugs, have been known to cause permanent brain damage with a single dose.