High Life: A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : For First Time in Poll History, Drugs Seen as Top Problem

For the first time in 54 years of polling, adults say drug abuse is the nation’s top problem, according to an article in the October issue of NEA Today, the newspaper of the National Education Assn.

A recent Gallup Poll found that 92% of adults want tougher drug laws. Sixty percent of teen-agers (ages 13 to 17, polled separately) see drug abuse as the biggest problem facing their age group. One of four teen-agers reports being offered some illegal drug in the past 30 days.

High school students in grades nine through 12 have an opportunity to take part in the annual Knights of Pythias poster contest through March 26, 1990.

The theme for this year’s contest is “The Hazards of Drug Abuse,” specifically aimed to show the necessity of highway safety. Students can collect prizes at the local, state and national levels. Tustin Lodge No. 85 will award a $300 U.S. Savings Bond to the area’s first-place winner, a $200 savings bond for second place and a $100 savings bond for third. The first-place winner of the national contest will receive a $1,000 savings bond.

Members of the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order founded in 1864 in Washington, support children’s charities, their youth camp in the Sierras and the Children’s Welfare Foundation of California.

For information about entering the poster contest and its rules, please contact John Bradley, contest chairman, at (714) 531-6340.

“If you get to be a really big headliner, you have to be prepared for people throwing bottles at you in the night.”

--Mick Jagger