ARE DRUGS IN OUR SCHOOLS?

When most people think of the drug culture, they may think of the 60's and
70's, criminals in back alleys, or people lying in gutters, broken needles
by their sides.

What seems to be a relatively unspoken truth in polite modern society is
the prevalence of the use of various drugs, not to mention alcohol and
cigarettes, among youth in today's high schools.

And it's not just the purported "bad kids" that are dealing and using these
narcotics. It may be your friendly next door neighbour, the "smart kid"
with straight 'A's, the sports fanatic, or your own child.

The unlikely types that keep their noses clean and follow the rules; that
is until they're behind closed doors.

As early as the eighth grade, marijuana becomes available for a price
easily affordable for youth who still receive an allowance or get paid to
mow the lawn. Knowledge of who sells the drug quickly circulates, and weed
often changes hands between classes in school hallways.

It feels exciting and dangerous for kids buying for the first time, but a
few years of high school pass and it becomes surprising to find anyone who
hasn't tried a joint for themselves. It becomes the norm: a harmless drug
that provides a little buzz.

The cycle of drug use and addiction could be stopped or at least slowed at
this point if the government would take some initiative and allow RCMP
officers to search schools with drug-sniffing dogs, but surely that would
be viewed as an invasion of privacy.

Even when caught in the act, a group of teens passing a "doobie" around for
each person to smoke were not, at least in one case, arrested by police or
expelled from their school (probably because they were not on school
property). A student attending class, clearly acting irregularly and
smelling of sweet smoke, was merely reprimanded by the supervising teacher,
who said aloud that she knew he/she was on drugs, and the student was sent
neither to the office nor the counsellors. With bongs, pipes, and other
paraphanalia available in local stores, it's not hard for those who may
otherwise punish this type of behavior to brush it off as insignificant.

It is not, however, the marijuana itself that is the major problem,
although it has been proven to kill brain cells, impair driving, and to be
harmful to the lungs.

Cigarettes and alcohol are both legal (although the former definitely
should not be), and so what's the problem with a little pot, right?

The fact is, that unless a person is growing and rolling their own
marijuana, it's impossible to know exactly what substances are being
combined with the plant itself.

Marijuana users report having suspected crystal meth and shrooms, among
other possibly more dangerous things being laced in their joints.

The casual attitude taken towards weed leads many naive youngsters to
believe that drugs on the whole are harmless, which can lead to more risky
habits.

The types of drugs available to high school students run the spectrum from
magic mushrooms, to crystal meth, to crack cocaine, to rare instances of
perscription drugs, and other, harder to find narcotics.

Usually students don't try these types of drugs, if they choose to try them
at all, until their later high school years.

For some youth with less resolve, peer pressure leads them to use their
friends' substance of choice for the first time (although they would never
admit it was anything other than their own free choice). It becomes a
recreational activity, especially for kids bored with the few other options
they see available to them in a small town, and it may lead to the downward
spiral hoped only to happen to "other people."