POT, ALCOHOL MOST POPULAR DRUGS AMONG STUDENTS

Two-thirds of high school students have tried alcohol, and a third has
experimented with illegal substances.

Those are among the findings of the first student survey ever taken to
measure drug use patterns among Nanaimo-Ladysmith high school students.

The anonymous survey, done by two Malaspina University-College
criminology students, found that nearly 56 per cent of Grade 8
students have tried alcohol. By Grade 10 the ratio rises to 78 per
cent, for an overall average of 67 per cent.

On average 32 per cent of students have experimented with illegal
drugs. By Grade 8, 21 per cent of students report having tried illegal
drugs. That more than doubles to 43 per cent by Grade 10.

These findings closely parallel findings of national surveys, an
encouraging sign for RCMP Const. Sarah Mattes, a school liaison officer.

"We were actually quite pleased with it," Mattes said.

"We all understand everybody experiments with alcohol and marijuana.
We're quite pleased other harmful drugs aren't being utilized."

Use of psychedelic drugs - LSD, mushrooms or MDMA (ecstasy) - is low,
especially among Grade 8 students. Even fewer had tried cocaine, or
its more addictive, smokeable form, crack. Nor are amphetamines widely
used. Less than one per cent report using illegal drugs on a daily
basis.

The 1,113 students surveyed - roughly half of the total in both grades
- - were not asked about heroin.

Among the survey's more alarming findings, 1.5 per cent of Grade 8
students and 2.6 per cent of Grade 10 students use alcohol daily.
That's about 19 students in Grade 10 alone.

"Those are young people who are having problems," said Tony White,
John Howard Society executive director.

"Youth who start drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to
develop alcohol dependence."

White said the numbers do not shock him.

"If you look at it statistically, the number of people who have
substance abuse problems coming from multi-generational substance
abusing families and you start adding the numbers up, it's not hard to
think that's a real figure," he said.

Students were asked to rate the effectiveness of drug education
programs in influencing their decision to abstain from drugs.
One-quarter of Grade 8 students reported an influence from the
police-backed DARE (drug abuse resistance education) program.

By Grade 10 DARE's influence falls to 14 per cent, with 30 per cent of
students saying they get their information from the provincial career
and personal planning, or CAPP program.

Drug use rises significantly during that two-year period, and now
educators are looking at how to bridge the gap.

"We want to make sure we're getting good information out to kids all
the time," says Robyn Cook, safe schools co-ordinator.

Which is one reason the survey is useful in conveying how youth are
responding to the existing programs.

"If we don't ask our kids, we're just shooting in the dark," Cook said.