Flagging a Serious Problem

In a four-part series that ended last Thursday, Times reporters Elliott Almond and Steve Lowery explored drug use among high school athletes in Orange County. The series may have focused on athletes, but the dangers, disappointments and suffering involved in substance abuse are just as real for other students and their families.

According to a survey last year by the state attorney general’s office, more than 65% of the state’s 11th graders have been drunk on alcohol, and nearly 9 out of 10 admit at least trying it. Other studies have shown that up to 40% of the nation’s 11-year-olds have been drunk.

The use of alcohol, as the series noted, is more prevalent than the use of drugs. One reason is that its distribution is legal although the sale is limited to those 21 and older. Another is that teen drinking is acceptable to many parents, some of whom even supply alcohol to their children, reasoning that it is better than using cocaine or other drugs.

School officials and doctors working in drug and alcohol abuse programs strongly urge parents not to condone drinking and to assert an appropriate parental role of control.

Some coaches, like those at Edison High School in Huntington Beach, try to help the students resist peer pressure. Edison instituted a strictly voluntary drug-testing program run by parents for the football team, in which the results go only to the students’ parents and doctors.

The program gives athletes who take the tests an excuse to turn down drugs and alcohol at parties. The coaches, who recognize that athletes are also role models for other students, are hoping that that will encourage more resistance to drugs by other students. The approach has helped cut down on heavy drug use. The American Civil Liberties Union, concerned about test programs that violate individual rights, has said it will not challenge these programs.

Edison’s drug testing program does one other thing that therapists believe is essential in any prevention or treatment program: It returns responsibility to the family, whose commitment and involvement is crucial to success.

The Times series did not find any easy solutions to the drug problem, surely one of the most serious social problems today. There are none. But the stories of students who succumbed to chemical dependence and have taken the hard road back to saying “no” should help discourage some of their classmates from ever starting to use drugs and alcohol, while encouraging others to quit. And the series serves to alert parents to the grim reality that everyone’s child is at risk.