Past state and national surveys have missed the mark for measuring substance use among secondary school students, according to the 12th biennial California Student Survey (CSS).
The report was amended to include first time alcohol use, illicit drugs, diverted prescription drugs and cold/cough medications (used to get high) in the total percentage of respondents who tried at least one of these in their lifetime.
The survey stated that as a result of the added questions, 60 percent more 9th grade students reported they used at least one drug in their lifetime. The number of students in 11th grade who reported use of illegal drugs rose to a whopping 74 percent.
I’m gratified to see that alcohol is finally out of the closet as the big problem, rather than the “killer weed” conservatives have been baying about like hounds for the last eight years. Reality trumps myths. Even the use of prescription drugs was much higher than smoking marijuana, according to the CSS survey
Today’s student is too world-wise to go along with simplistic abstinence programs. Worse yet, when false information goes out, students know it, mock it, and go the opposite way to show their scorn, according to the survey’s summary.
For the entire 2007-2008 California Student Survey, go to the web at http://www.safestate.org/index.cfm?navID=254.
via The real war on drugs: Survey finds past campaigns were flawed – Times-Standard Online .
Gee, it almost makes it sound like marijuana is “old school” and passé! I wonder how many young people chose these more dangerous drugs because of the drug testing for marijuana and the more stringent punishment one faces for the positive test. I don’t recall any stories of high school kids being expelled, sent to juvenile incarceration, or dropped from scholarships for getting high on cough syrup.
Loading ...
Ok.. I have a new, free, public service to seriously help on the war on drugs. As of today, drug use statistics are reported to people based on anonymous surveys that are usually conducted in the following, but not all situations:
In-Person Household Surveys
Phone Household Surveys
In-School Surveys
Arrestee or Jail Surveys
Medical Data
Law Enforcement Data
and other data types can be used as well.. For more information, visit this article on erowid:
http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/statistics/statistics_article1.shtml
We still have to mention the more important fact that there still cannot be accurate(!) data collection for drug use statistics because of “Simple Survey Erros”.
“..For instance, in 1997, the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA or NHS) encountered a strange problem with survey administration. Surveyors recorded that nearly 10% of selected respondents over the age of 18 could not complete the survey because their parents refused to let them participate.” (More info visit http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/statistics/statistics_article2.shtml)
In an effort to raise drug use awareness and promote the progress of our society, I’ve been developing a new tool that reports drug use statistics that are otherwise already reported by government agencies like the National Institute on Drug Abuse. This however, goes beyond just reporting statistics for the USE of substances.
DopeStats.com reports statistics on the use and cost of over 300 substances in 3,140 U.S counties. That is, it reports
Average price
Median price
Mode Price
Total Economic Cost
for each of the 300 substances in each of the 3,140 U.S counties. The process to do all of this is simple and intuitive: Ask people to fill out a brief (less than a minute), anonymous survey in each U.S county.
Since this tool seems to solve the problems mentioned above, and because it is a very useful tool for parents, researchers, law enforcement officials, and anyone else interested in seeking information about the war on drugs, and because its quick and free(!), why not give it a statistic? DopeStats.com also reports statistics for Nicotine (cigarettes), Alcohol (Beer or wine), and many other perfectly legal substances too.