Drug use is widespread among American schoolchildren. The United
States has the highest rate of teenage drug use of any industrialized
nation. The drug problem in this country is 10 times greater than in
Japan, for example. Sixty-one percent of high school seniors have used
drugs. Marijuana use remains at an unacceptably high level; 41 percent
of 1985 seniors reported using it in the last year, and 26 percent
said they had used it at least once in the previous month. Thirteen
percent of seniors indicated that they had used cocaine in the past
year. This is the highest level ever observed, more than twice the
proportion in 1975.
Many students purchase and use drugs at school. A recent study of
teenagers contacting a cocaine hotline revealed that 57 percent of the
respondents bought most of their drugs at school. Among 1985 high
school seniors, one-third of the marijuana users reported that they
had smoked marijuana at school. Of the seniors who used amphetamines
during the past year, two-thirds reported having taken them at school.
The drug problem affects all types of students. All regions and all
types of communities show high levels of drug use. Forty-three percent
of 1985 high school seniors in nonmetropolitan areas reported illicit
drug use in the previous year, while the rate for seniors in large
metropolitan areas was 50 percent. Although higher proportions of
males are involved in illicit drug use, especially heavy drug use, the
gap between the sexes is lessening. The extent to which high school
seniors reported having used marijuana is about the same for blacks
and whites; for other types of drugs reported, use is slightly higher
among whites.
Initial drug use occurs at an increasingly early age. The percentage
of students using drugs by the sixth grade has tripled over the last
decade. In the early 1960's, marijuana use was virtually nonexistent
among 13-year-olds, but now about one in six 13-year-olds has used
marijuana.