Grand Jury Cites Need to Discourage Drug Use

San Diego County public schools need to focus more resources and attention on educating students to avoid drug abuse, the county grand jury urged Wednesday.

In a report concluding a yearlong study of drug abuse prevention programs, the 19-member panel said funding shortages had forced school districts in the county to curtail successful programs, despite the cost-effectiveness of prevention.

The grand jurors also called on school boards to establish uniform, district-wide study programs on drug abuse and endorsed state funding of comprehensive prevention studies from the kindergarten to 12th-grade levels.

“There is indeed a serious drug problem among our youth, and . . . the rural communities and suburbs have just as much a need for prevention as the large cities,” the grand jury report says.

While the report says schools can provide a powerful base for attacking drug abuse, it adds that “parents and community leaders do need to admit their responsibilities in the drug prevention area.” It urges schools to inform parents when their children are participating in drug abuse programs and invite the parents to attend.

The county’s top drug abuse prevention educator embraced the report’s conclusions, agreeing that preventive education from an early age is the key to halting drug addiction.

“The cradle-to-grave approach is the only valid one,” said Peter Frank, director of the Centre for Student Concerns of the San Diego County Office of Education. “It is true that relatively few districts have that kind of approach.”

A survey by the grand jury of 36 of the county’s 43 school districts found that three had no drug education programs and nearly a third had implemented programs only in the last five years. Programs run from five days to a full semester, with drug abuse education most commonly being offered to seventh-graders.

Studies, meanwhile, have found widespread drug use by students in San Diego County schools at levels comparable to those detected nationwide. A survey last summer of 7th-, 10th- and 12th-grade public school students found that 10% said they smoked marijuana daily or weekly and 18% drank alcohol as frequently. Among 4th-graders, 8% said they had tried marijuana.

Also, scores of students have been arrested by San Diego police and county sheriff’s deputies in drug investigations at area high schools.

The grand jury report says effective prevention programs have three elements: they help students understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate drug use; they develop a feeling of self-esteem and self-awareness, and they create a strong support network of parents and peers for students to draw upon.

Citing a California study, it says $31 in benefits are gained for each dollar spent on prevention of drug use, while only $11.54 is gained for each dollar spent on treatment of abusers.

“Since prevention has been proven to be cost-effective, it is well worth the expense to provide instruction on drugs in this format,” the report says.

The report calls on the county Board of Education to expand Frank’s countywide program and urges school districts to consider using funds generated by the California Lottery for drug abuse education.

The San Diego Unified School District, the grand jurors noted, has had to cut back on prevention programs because of budget shortfalls. Edward Fletcher, director of health services, said Wednesday that the district’s staff of drug education specialists was cut from 25 to 16 in a round of Proposition 13-related budget cuts in the late 1970s.

The San Diego schools recently have developed new prevention programs for elementary school students, including a videotape for 6th graders featuring actress Brooke Shields. But Fletcher endorsed the jurors’ call for further expansion of anti-drug education.

“Sometimes other school administrators think the funds are being spent too far from the classroom when you spend them on drug education,” he said. “I know the youngster is not going to be able to study if he’s stoned.”