FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Rafael Lemaitre/Jennifer de Vallance 202–395–6618
Wednesday, September 5, 2001
BACK TO SCHOOL REPORT SHOWS 60% OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND 30% OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS RETURNING TO SCHOOLS WHERE DRUGS ARE USED, KEPT, AND SOLD
(Washington, DC)—Edward H. Jurith, Acting Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), commended the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) on the release of their report (PDF) on substance abuse and America's schools.
Acting Director Jurith stated, "This report demonstrates the essential need for parents, teachers, schools and communities to come together and become more involved in the lives of our children. Drug use is preventable. If children reach adulthood without using illegal drugs, alcohol, or tobacco, they are unlikely to develop a drug abuse problem later in life."
Highlights of the report's findings include:
- Approximately 9.5 million high school students (60 percent) and almost 5 million middle school students (30 percent) will be returning to schools this fall where illegal drugs are used, kept, or sold.
- Students who attend schools where drugs are used, kept, and sold are nearly three times more likely to smoke, drink, or use illicit drugs as students whose schools are substance free.
- By the time students complete high school, 70 percent (11.1 million) have smoked cigarettes, 81 percent (12.8 million) have drunk alcohol, 47 percent (7.4 million) have used marijuana, and 24 percent (3.8 million) have used another illicit drug. Each year 13.2 million students (ages 12-17) become new users of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs.
The CASA report is the result of six years of analysis, surveys, and field investigations, including one hundred focus groups with students, teachers, parents and school administrators in public, private and parochial schools across the country, and the most exhaustive study ever undertaken of the available data on substance use in our schools and among our students.
