Source: CBS News
By Ryan Jaslow
Aug 22nd
Back-to-school season is just around the corner, and researchers
at Columbia University are warning that teens could face added drug and alcohol
risks once classes start up.
In its
17th annual back-to-school survey, The National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASAColumbia) finds that 17 percent of
high school students - about 2.8 million U.S. teens - drink, drug and smoke
during the school day.
"For
millions of American teens, drugs and alcohol, not more advanced education, are
what put the 'high' in the high schools they attend," said Joseph A. Califano,
Jr., founder and chairman emeritus of CASAColumbia and former US Secretary of
Health, Education, and Welfare, in a press release. "For millions of parents
trying to raise drug-free kids, the 'high' school years are the most dangerous
times their children face, and the 'high' schools are a dangerous place to send
their kids."
For the
survey, 1,003 12- to 17-year-olds were interviewed at home by telephone, and
were asked general questions about their home and academic lives. Students were
also asked about their attitudes towards drug, alcohol and tobacco use, whether
they or their friends engaged in these behaviors and what role social media
played in substance use.
The survey
revealed for the sixth straight year that 60 percent of high school students
said they attended a "drug-infected" school, where drugs are used or sold on
school grounds. Forty-four percent of students said they personally knew a
student who sold drugs at their school, with 91 percent of them saying marijuana
was the drug that was sold and 24 percent saying prescription drugs, followed by
cocaine (9 percent) and ecstasy (7 percent).
The
researchers looked closely at the role of social media in teen substance use and
found 75 percent of surveyed 12 to 17-year-olds said seeing pictures of teens
partying with alcohol or marijuana on social networking sites such as Facebook
or MySpace encourages them to party similarly.
Forty-five
percent of teens - almost 11 million - said they have seen such pictures online
and 47 percent of those teens said that it seems like pictured teens are having
a good time. Teens who have seen these pictures were found to be four times more
likely to have used marijuana, more than three times likelier to have used
alcohol, and almost three times more likely to have used
tobacco.
"This
year's survey reveals a new kind of potent peer pressure - digital peer
pressure," Califano said. "Digital peer pressure moves beyond a child's friends
and the kids they hang out with. It invades the home and a child's bedroom via
the Internet," he said.
Last
year's survey from CASAColumbia found similar rates among teens exposed to
questionable images through social media.
Other
notable findings suggested that the gap between drug use at public schools and
private school was closing, compared to past surveys. For the first time in the
survey's history, more than 50 percent of private high school students said
their school is drug-infected, up from 36 percent of students in
2011.
Researchers also for the first time asked students if they had
ever been left alone overnight without adult supervision, with one-third of them
saying they had been. The survey also revealed that teens left home alone
overnight were twice as likely to use marijuana and almost twice as likely to
have used alcohol. They were also three times more likely to have used
tobacco.
Teens who
attend religious services at least four times a month were less likely to have
used marijuana, alcohol or tobacco.
The survey
also suggests teens are still turning to even more dangerous drugs. 52 percent
of high schoolers said they knew at least one friend or classmate who used acid,
ecstasy, meth, cocaine or heroin; one-third of students knew a peer who abused
prescription or over-the-counter drugs to get high.
"The
findings are alarming but not surprising," Dr. Bruce Goldman, director of
substance abuse services at Zucker Hillside Hospital, in Glen Oaks, N.Y. who was
not involved in the survey, told HealthDay. "We know that teens abuse alcohol,
cannabis, prescription medications. It makes sense that they do it at school
where they congregate with their peers."
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