STUDENTS SAY MHS PEERS HIT DRUGS HARD

Kids' Informal Survey Hints At Widespread Use

Muskogee High School students may be experimenting with a wide variety of
drugs, according to a recent informal survey conducted by the school's
newspaper, the Scout.

Zollie Saxon, a reporter at the newspaper who came up with the survey, said
the numbers reveal experimentation with drugs ranging from tobacco to heroin.

"We had people who said they used VHS tape cleaner," Saxon said. "Some
parents don't know. They think their kids are nice and sweet and haven't
done anything, but they do."

Saxon said, rather than just being a school or parent problem, the whole
community should take action.

Drug testing for students, stricter drug enforcement, merchants checking
identification and closer parental supervision may curb some of the
experimentation with drugs among young people.

Saxon said she was not too surprised by the survey's results, and that it
is not uncommon to smell marijuana or cigarette smoke in the bathrooms at
the school.

"Up in G unit (classroom building) you can smell weed and cigarettes,"
Saxon said. "People come to school with alcohol in water bottles."

The top three drugs used by the 768 high school students who responded were
alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, according to the survey. About half of the
student body responded to the poll.

Alcohol had the highest percentage of users, with 71.2 percent. And
marijuana and tobacco were tied for second place with 54.4 percent.

A smaller percentage of students said they had used drugs such as ecstasy,
horse tranquilizers, PCP, inhalants, heroin and absinthe.

The results of the survey were published in the MHS school paper in February.

Scott Hilfiger, a parent of an MHS student, said he is not sure if the
survey is correct, and was unaware of the survey's results.

"I would assume there might be students drinking and smoking marijuana, but
that other stuff, I haven't heard anything about that," Hilfiger said.

Saxon said the survey shows that students are experimenting with drugs
regardless of their racial or economic demographic.

"If you look at some of the students who do do drugs, it's not just the
lower class, it's the upper class, too," Saxon said. "Even some of the top
students in the class do drugs."

Tim Major, a student reporter who helped get the story, said many times,
parents may know about the drug use.

"In cases like that, I think the parents do know, they just won't admit
it," Major said.

Saxon said drug testing for all students and better parental supervision
would help rein in the drug use.

"Parents just need to know where their kids are and what they are doing,"
Saxon said. "They can say they're going to someone's house and there will
be 15 people over there with drugs and booze. They can't get that (tobacco
or alcohol) unless they have a fake ID," Saxon said. "There has to be
places that don't ID, or their parents or an older person is getting it for
them."