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Essay on How Close Can Drugs and Alcohol be to a School?
The average ages of first alcohol use and first illicit drug use in the United States are 12 and 13 years, respectively. Well over one-half of American high school seniors have tried an illicit drug, and over one-third has used an illicit drug other than marijuana; nearly one in six seniors has tried cocaine. High school girls come close to the level of boys in their use of alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. Close to one-half of 4th through 6th graders report pressure from other students to try alcohol and over one-fourth of these children say there is pressure to try cocaine.
Data on drug use by junior high school students and high school seniors from a nationwide study supported by the National Institute of Drug Abuse illustrate the extent of the problem among adolescents in the United States. In addition to these data, 91 percent of high school seniors report having used alcohol at least once and 5 percent report using it daily.
More than two-thirds of high school seniors have smoked cigarettes at some time and 20 percent smoke them daily. The use of smokeless tobacco is increasing among adolescent boys. Twenty-two percent of 8th graders report using smokeless tobacco at some time in their lives. However, only 0.2% percent of 8th graders report using it daily.
The percentage of adolescents who use smokeless tobacco on a daily basis rises rapidly with increasing grade levels in high school. Of high school seniors in a recent study, 65 percent report having used an illegal drug at least once, and 30 percent report having used an illegal drug prior to high school. Data on high school seniors are somewhat conservative because students who drop out of school prior to their senior year are not included. Drug use among this group would be expected to be higher than among their in-school peers.....
