Parents, Kids & Drugs: Fact vs. Fiction
|
| FICTION |
FACTS |
| My
child is too young to do drugs. |
Forty-nine percent of teens admit to having smoked marijuana
at age 13 or younger. |
|
I’ve spoken to my child about the dangers of drugs.
|
Nearly half of middle- and high-school students say that
their parents have never discussed the dangers of drugs with them. |
| Drugs
are not a problem in my child’s school. |
Seventy-eight percent of high school students say that drugs
are used, kept, and sold at their schools.
Only 13 percent of principals and 15 percent of teachers believe that a
majority of the students in their schools have tried marijuana. Yet 53
percent of their students say that the majority of their peers have at least
tried the drug. |
| Drug
use is not a problem in my community. |
Teens continue to rank drugs as the single most important
problem facing people their age. |
|
Drugs are not a real threat to my community as a whole—drug
use is really a "victimless" crime.
|
Illegal drugs cost our society approximately $110 billion
each year in physical and mental healthcare costs, lost productivity (school
and work), and incarceration.
Illegal drug use often leads to other antisocial behaviors. A Parents
Resource Institute on Drug Education (PRIDE) study reported that students
who bring guns to school are more likely to do drugs than students who do
not bring guns to school. Of junior-high students who reported having
carried guns to school, 31 percent used cocaine compared with 2 percent who
never carried guns to school.
|
|
My child doesn’t hang out with anyone who does drugs—he/she
is too young to know anyone who does drugs.
|
Two out of five middle-school students know a friend or
classmate who has used acid, cocaine or heroin. |
|
Drugs may be in my child’s school but he/she doesn’t know
where to get them.
|
By the time teens reach age 17, more than half (56 percent)
know a drug dealer at school.
In 1997, 54 percent of 8th graders, 81 percent of 10th graders, and 90
percent of seniors said it would be "very easy" or "fairly easy" for them to
get marijuana. Twenty percent said the same about heroin. |
|
My children have never tried marijuana—they know that it’s
dangerous for them.
|
A 1999 study for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America
revealed that 14 percent of parents think their teen has used marijuana,
while the percentage of teens who have actually used marijuana is about 42
percent.
Thirty-three percent of parents said they believe their teens view marijuana
as harmful. Yet, only 18 percent of teens view trying pot as risky.
|
|
Inhalants aren’t drugs and really aren’t harmful to anyone.
|
Inhalants/whippets/poppers are toxic poisons— they are
dangerous and addictive. Sniffing just once can cause brain damage or
suffocation. Other side effects include nose bleeds, incontinence,
dizziness, vomiting, and diarrhea. Sniffing inhalants can also result in
breathing problems and cause heart failure. According to The National
Inhalant Prevention Coalition, inhalants are the first substance used,
before marijuana and cocaine. In fact, inhalant use often appears before the
onset of tobacco and alcohol use.
|
| My
child is too young to use inhalants. |
One in five students will have used inhalants by the time
they enter the 8th grade. |
Hillcrest
Middle School Online
