Substance abuse remains pervasive in schools, but students are aware of the dangers

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University recently released its 2007 "National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XII: Teens and Parents" with a press release stating that 80 percent of America's high school students attend schools "infested with drugs." The first line of the actual study states, "For too many of America's schoolchildren, alcohol and other drug use, drug possession and drug dealing are as much a part of the curriculum as math or English." With such an attention-grabbing headline, it was no wonder that nearly every news market ran with the story. The "fact" that our nation's schools are becoming dangerous drug dens is a terrifying thought. There is only one problem: this is simply not true.

Looking beyond the press release to the actual study, you will see that CASA is basing its claim on an absurdly simplistic question: "Is your school a drug-free school or is it not drug free, meaning some students keep drugs, use drugs or sell drugs on school grounds?" Using that question, I would contend that the 80 percent figure is under-reporting the facts. The attitude that any school, anywhere is "free" of drugs is a dangerously naive one that we all too frequently encounter when talking to parents, teachers, school administrators, and politicians.

Does that mean that we believe that every school is "drug-infested?" While such a grim assessment might lead to more headlines and could conceivably lend us greater weight as we engage in the competitive grant-writing process, the answer is still no.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse recently released the 2006 synopsis of their "Monitoring the Future (MTF): National Results on Adolescent Drug Use," which was based upon exponentially larger sample sizes and an instrument designed to measure actual use, rather than attitudes. While it paints a much more optimistic picture of drug-use trends then does the CASA study, we think that more importantly, it paints a more realistic one.

Those of us who work in the field of addiction services know that new science-based prevention is working (no more "Just Say No" campaigns). The MTF study reports that - with the exception of prescription drugs - nearly every category of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use has been decreasing, in some cases dramatically, for more than a decade. New Jersey alone has seen an almost 50 percent decrease in youth smoking, and municipalities all across the state are enacting ordinances to prevent underage drinking on private property. We are making great progress.

Rather than being shocked that increasing numbers of students are recognizing that their schools are not drug free, I count this as further proof of our success. What used to be under the radar, overlooked, or simply taken for granted is now recognized.

Rather than sounding the Chicken Little alarm and sending people scurrying to their homes, we urge people to come out and help be part of the solution. For more information on how to do so, please contact the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of Middlesex County Inc. at www.ncadd-middlesex.org or your local affiliate of the New Jersey Prevention Network at www.njpn.org.

Steven G. Liga

CEO and executive director

NCADD of Middlesex County Inc.

East Brunswick