DRUG SURVEY SHOULD SHOCK COMMUNITY

A student survey of Muskogee High School teenage drug use, while not
scientifically rigorous, should still alert the community that many of our
young people continue to experiment with drugs, many of them very dangerous.

The results, first published in February's edition of The Scout, the MHS
student newspaper, and reported in the Phoenix on Friday, leave a lot of
questions about the survey's procedures and parameters, but a few things
seem clear.

First, a large percentage of each class, about a third in many cases, have
tried or indulge in tobacco, alcohol and marijuana. And second, the list of
other drugs students say they have taken is a long list, containing items
that probably would be a surprise to most Muskogee parents.

It's no shock that alcohol and tobacco are used by many students. Despite
the ubiquitous warnings about those two drugs, segments of our society and
advertisements strongly endorse them. Students, like many adults, do not
take seriously the health and safety risks associated with alcohol and tobacco.

With marijuana, too, it is no surprise that students find the drug
available and of interest. The positive and negative effects of marijuana
continue to be debated, and it has many promoters.

But dozens of students, according to the survey, are experimenting with
hard drugs - cocaine, morphine, speed and hallucinogens - and that should
prompt Muskogee parents to be concerned.

Parents need to maintain communication with their children, showing an
interest in their lives so that they are not tempted to indulge in things
that have the potential to destroy their futures. And parents need to be
cognizant of their own reliance on prescription drugs and that they might
be indirectly adding to the belief that drugs are an answer to every
problem that a person faces in life.