Drug Use in High Schools Found Prevalent in County

Drug use among high school students appears to be more prevalent in Orange County than nationwide, but a recent county grand jury study found that efforts aimed at student prevention and education are fragmented and underfunded.

More than 40% of Orange County 11th-graders surveyed had smoked marijuana, and almost 20% had used cocaine, according to a 1983 study commissioned by the county. Results of that survey of 6,682 junior and senior high school students by a UCLA researcher are the most recent figures available, but experts say they are conservative and out of date.

By comparison, a 1986 national survey sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that about 40% of 15,000 graduating high school seniors reported smoking marijuana in the previous year, and 13% said they had used cocaine.

Bill Rhodes, program director for the county’s Drug Abuse Services, said drug use among students appears to have escalated since the 1983 survey conducted by UCLA education professor Rodney Skager. “The problem is, cocaine wasn’t a big deal back then (in 1983). It’s more popular now,” Rhodes said.

Affluence Cited

Government officials and directors of private substance abuse programs in Orange County pointed to the affluence of this area, its transient population and the pressures of adolescence as the major contributing factors to drug use among high school students. Also, they noted, drugs are now prevalent in society.

“The drug problem in Orange County (schools) is comparable to other beach counties in California,” said Robert Peterson, county superintendent of education. “The problem in our society with drugs is that the affluent are even more susceptible than the impoverished.”

In a June report entitled “Substance Abuse Prevention and Education Services for Youth of Orange County,” the grand jury wrote that the county “has become an area of considerable illegal drug activity . . . especially damaging to youth.”

Among its eight findings, the report noted that substance abuse programs for youth in the county are fragmented and lack coordination and adequate funding. Of the $5.3 million budgeted for the county’s substance abuse programs in the 1986 fiscal year, only about $800,000 was spent on education and prevention, the report said. At the same time, demand for education and prevention services from the county had jumped 300%, according to the report.

“It’s something we had kind of been ignoring,” Rhodes said. “There is a lot of concern.”

He said his program had just received more funding and authorization to increase full-time staffing from 1 1/2 positions to 12. “We’re on our way,” he said.

Way to Break Away

“We certainly have a large drug problem,” said David Naishtut, a clinical director at Turning Point Family Services, a private drug counseling referral program used by almost half of the county’s high schools.

Naishtut said Turning Point counsels about 4,000 students a year. He said that the largest drug problem among students is with alcohol but that cocaine appears to be the drug of choice.

Many students see drugs as a way to break away from the family and establish their own identity, an important need for adolescents, Naishtut said. “Drugs give students the illusion of being independent,” he said. “They have a peer group to go to.”

Affluence, families that move often and drug use by the parents themselves are typical characteristics of many Orange County students with drug problems at Straight Talk Family Counseling Clinics, said program coordinator Richard Riegel.

He said Straight Talk’s drug intervention program for high school and elementary school children worked with about 400 students last year alone.