Drug Survey Finds Higher Use Among Dropouts, Truants : Study: But poll finds little difference between students and non-students in the use of alcohol.

A landmark survey investigating the elusive world of California’s school dropouts and chronic truants has found that their drug use is considerably higher than among those who stay in school. But when it comes to occasional drinking, there is little difference between the two groups, researchers found in the study released Wednesday.

“We have a terrible problem with alcohol abuse,” Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren said in discussing the survey results at a news conference. “That ought to be a strong message for a lot of parents out there.”

By including dropouts, former dropouts who have since joined an alternative education program, and those who are frequently absent, the report added a major new pool of information to that produced by the state’s biennial studies of illegal drug and alcohol use among California’s public school students.

Officials at the Southwest Regional Laboratory in Los Alamitos, which conducted the survey early this year, said it marks the most comprehensive effort anywhere in the nation to study the drug-related attitudes and practices of dropouts and chronic truants.

Among its major findings were:

* More than 73% of youths in the survey said they drank beer within the last six months, compared with 65.7% of their peers in school; the numbers were even closer for wine drinking (63.4% and 61.4%, respectively), but there was a larger gap between the use of hard liquor among those surveyed (59.7%) and those in school (49.4%).

* Drug use was considerably more prevalent among dropouts, former dropouts and habitual absentees than among those in school; for example, 63.7% of those surveyed reported using marijuana within the past six months, contrasted with 29.5% of those in school.

* Dropouts who had returned to school--about half those surveyed--reported less drug or alcohol use than those who had stayed away; about 28% of those who remained out of school said they wanted to return.

Researchers interviewed 1,436 youths between the ages of 15 and 17 in Anaheim and Oakland, using social service organizations to help find the teen-agers and offering small gift certificates to fast-food restaurants as incentives to participate. About 70% of those interviewed were either chronic truants or “recovered” dropouts--those who had returned to some form of schooling.

About one-fourth were employed, most in part-time jobs, and one-third said they had been involved in gangs at some point in their lives. Slightly more than 18% had children. Further, 40.7% said they had sold drugs, while 16.2% said they had committed some other crime to get them.

The most frequently cited reasons for dropping out or being habitually truant were trouble with school work (37%), problems dealing with teachers and other staff (35%), problems with fellow students (32%) and trouble with gangs (24.1%).

Lungren said the $150,000 survey, paid for by the state departments of Justice, Alcohol and Drug Programs, and Education, offers some hope despite its generally bleak findings because it can provide ideas for solutions. But he acknowledged that cash-starved state agencies and local school districts are unlikely to find the money for more anti-dropout programs.

He added that another, less comprehensive study--one looking into drug and alcohol use in private and parochial schools--is nearing completion.