Parents may try their best to educate their kids to avoid drug use, but if they then send them to a school where drugs or alcohol use or trafficking is common, their efforts are more likely to fail. This is according to a 2008 survey from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.

According to this survey, one-third of parents surveyed felt that the presence of drugs in the child’s school would not increase his or her risk of drug or alcohol use. But in a 2007 report, CASA stated that eighty percent of America’s high school students and 44 percent of middle schools students have personally witnessed drunk or high students or illegal drug use, dealing or possession on school grounds. And that on average, students who go to schools with higher rates of drug abuse themselves manifest higher rates of illegal drug or alcohol use.

This year, for the first time, teens reported that it is easier to get prescription drugs to abuse than it is to obtain beer. And 43 percent said that they knew where to buy marijuana within a day.

“Drugs are out there and our kids know it very well,” stated Derry Hallmark, Director of Admissions and a Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor at Narconon Arrowhead. Narconon Arrowhead is one of the country’s leading drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, located in Canadian, Oklahoma.

“It helps to keep out our kids safe to educate them on the true dangers of drug abuse and to stay fully involved in their lives by sharing experiences with them and having family dinners,” added Mr. Hallmark. “Even then, some people will slip through and wind up addicted to a prescription or illicit drug or alcohol. That’s where we come in by helping these people learn to live drug-free lives again. More than seventy percent of our graduates stay drug-free after graduation. Our successful program uses a sauna program to flush remnants of drugs or alcohol that remain in the fatty tissues and are involved in stimulating cravings. We then go on to alleviate the guilt and depression experienced by every addict through counseling and life skills training.”

---