HALF OF NATION'S SCHOOLS AREN'T DRUG-FREE

WASHINGTON - Half of all teen-agers this fall will attend a school at
which drugs are sold, used or kept, according to a national
organization that fights drug abuse.

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia
University released a report Wednesday detailing drug use and
availability among teens.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that,
by the time students complete high school, 47 percent have smoked
marijuana, 24 percent have used another illicit drug and 81 percent
have drunk alcohol. They also estimate that 70 percent have smoked
cigarettes.

The Columbia group's survey of 1,000 students found that half of all
teen-agers said their school was not drug-free, meaning that students
keep, use or sell drugs on school grounds.

Sixty percent of high school students said there were drugs on
campus; 30 percent of middle school students said the same.

The random telephone survey of students age 12-17 was conducted Oct.
20-Nov. 5, by QEV Analytics. It has a margin of error of plus or
minus 3.1 percent.

The percentage of teen-agers who say there are drugs on campus has
actually dropped since 1998, said Joseph Califano, a former secretary
of health, education and welfare, who heads the group. But Califano
said the high number of schools in which drugs are present is still
unacceptable.

"When parents start to feel as strongly about drugs in schools as
they do about asbestos in schools, we'll take a giant step forward,"
he said.

Califano said national efforts to keep schools drug-free have failed,
primarily because drug-prevention lessons don't address the factors
that lead students to experiment with drugs. Anti-drug programs
abound, he said, but many aren't based on sound science and few are
compatible with others.

Califano said zero-tolerance policies, by which students caught with
drugs are expelled or suspended from school, are a double-edged
sword, since they send a clear no-use message but also can encourage
parents and friends of drug users to keep quiet out of fear the user
will be punished severely.

Since 1996, the group's annual survey has consistently shown that
only about one-third of 17-year-olds would report a drug user or
seller at school.