THE STONER FALLACY

Smoking, drinking and drug abuse are rampant in our high schools and
middle schools, right? Every teenager knows that.

Well, not exactly. It turns out students in Palo Alto have some
grossly inflated notions of their peers' bad habits. While most
students surveyed recently at Gunn and Palo Alto high schools said
they didn't drink in a typical month, most students said they thought
most students did.

Same with smoking marijuana. At Palo Alto High, 91 percent of students
thought ``most'' of their peers had used it, yet only 31 percent
admitted having done so.

At the middle schools, where everyone knows that drugs are everywhere,
only 3 percent of students said they had ever tried marijuana.

What does this mean? Could it be that the kids are all right after
all? Can parents quit worrying?

Well, not exactly. Alcohol and drugs are a serious threat to teens.
The death on Wednesday of a 14-year-old Belmont girl who took ecstasy
at a slumber party is a sad reminder.

But Palo Alto leaders understand how powerful peer pressure can be.
They hope that if kids know what everybody's really doing, they'll
feel better about saying no.