STUDENT SURVEY FINDS INCREASED DRUG AND ALCOHOL USE

The new drug results are out, and we're not completely sure what to make of
them.

We're talking about the periodic surveys of school kids by a national
organization called PRIDE, for Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education.

As an acronym, it comes across as wishful thinking. What's to be proud of
finding that our kids admit they drink alcohol, smoke marijuana and take
cocaine?

And they do. But School Stuff was a kid once. That doesn't mean we did
those things, but we certainly understand the teen-age temptation to give
silly answers to serious questions.

We surely do hope what's reflected in PRIDE's anonymous surveys is, to the
greatest extent, this teen-age silliness.

Otherwise, we'd have to accept that of the 1,300 students surveyed, more
than half the high schoolers drink beer or booze and that 37 percent smoke
pot. Among seniors, 66 percent said they drank beer.

These numbers for middle school children drop to about a third for alcohol
and about 13 percent for pot. Admitted cocaine use is much lower -- 5
percent for high schoolers, 2 percent for middle schoolers -- but any use
of that deadly drug by teens is depressing.

Rick Richardson, W-JCC's director of student services, says the kids say
they do most of their illegal drug/alcohol use outside of school, on
weekends or weeknights.

So are our kids getting better or worse?

PRIDE's last survey of W-JCC's middle and high school students, which came
out three years ago, found the admitted illegal beer swilling lower for
freshmen (44 percent vs. 58 percent) and seniors (58 percent vs. 66
percent). Pot use among freshmen and seniors was lower, too, at 23 percent
and 34 percent.

This means that either about the same number of honest kids are still
getting bombed -- way, way too many -- or kids still are having fun with
silly answers to serious questions.

We much, much prefer the silly-answer theory.