Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Editorial

Survey confirms drug use soaring

This is the time of year when high school seniors are recognized for academic and athletic accomplishment, and this year's Los Gatos High School seniors certainly aren't lacking when it comes to achievement.

For that, the Class of '97 should feel good.

But class members have also earned the dubious distinction of having increased their use of alcohol 19 percent since their freshman year.

The just-released drug survey administered by Community Against Substance Abuse also shows that since they responded to the survey as freshmen, members of the class have increased their use of marijuana dramatically from 32 percent of students to 52 percent. Hallucinogens have also grown in popularity with the Class of '97. Teen drug use continues to rise nationwide, but use is significantly higher in Los Gatos than the national average.

What are we to make of these statistics?

Has the use of alcohol and marijuana become so common that 17-year-olds in Los Gatos don't even think twice about using them?

People often use drugs, including alcohol, to mask a lack of self-esteem. Ask a young person why he or she drinks or uses drugs at parties, and many will confide that they don't feel comfortable unless they're high.

Whatever the reason, the survey results should make the community sit up and take notice.

Pointing the finger at the school isn't the answer, although school administrators clearly have their work cut out for them. Some 15 percent of the students at LGHS report using drugs at school and also at school events.

The prospect of drug-sniffing dogs snooping around school lockers and in the campus parking lot is not a pretty image. But schools do have a responsibility to keep the campus drug-free. And officials at LGHS need to step up their vigilance.

But when it comes to the apparently uninhibited use of drugs at local parties, only parents can make a difference.

The real problem is that parenting is hard work and getting harder every year, especially in fast-paced, high-priced Silicon Valley.

Who has time these days to get to know their kids' friends and their parents? Who has time to find out if a party will be chaperoned and drug free?

And how many parents of teenagers actually have the nerve--and the time--to enforce the rules to which they pay lip service?

Many Los Gatans take comfort in the large number of LGHS graduates who go on to college. They see it as proof that, even if their kids use drugs, everything will be fine.

These parents need to keep their fingers crossed, for although many young people will survive the unbridled use of drugs and alcohol, not all of them will.

[ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ]