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sigmund22
Member
Reged: 03/23/04
Posts: 160
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This survey covers a broad spectrum of socio-economic classes, cultural diversity and other factors that could have made the findings spurious.
TEENAGERS MISJUDGE DRUG USE
Survey Shows Figures Are Lower Than Students Think
Drug and alcohol use by students at Palo Alto's public high schools and middle schools is not nearly as high as students think it is, a survey that drew responses from 75 percent of those students showed.
Leaders of the community group that sponsored the survey hope to use the results to reach "the kids who are saying, everybody's doing it so I will, too," said Becky Beacom, the health education manager for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
The anonymous survey of 4,062 students at Palo Alto's two high schools and three middle schools leaves no doubt that some students drink alcohol and smoke pot. Twenty-eight percent of the high school students said they have a drink in a typical month, and 28 percent have smoked marijuana. Twenty-one percent use tobacco.
But, Beacom said, turning those statistics around demonstrates that most students neither drink nor smoke pot or cigarettes -- and students don't understand that. The survey revealed the majority of students think that drinking and drug use is the social norm, that "it's skyrocketing, it's horrible," Beacom said.
That misperception "can actually increase teen substance use, as adolescents feel pressured to conform to what they believe is the norm -- even if that belief is wrong," Beacom said.
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catyvid
Stranger
Reged: 11/15/03
Posts: 3
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"This survey covers a broad spectrum of socio-economic classes, cultural diversity and other factors that could have made the findings spurious."
If this is Palo Alto California, I don't seee how the study could have covered a broad range of socio-economic classes. Palo Alto is one of the highest per capita income stratas in the United States. Now if they had included East Palo Alto in the study then there might have been a more economically diverse sampling.
Regardless, perhaps the current "drug scare" in the media is responsible for the false assumption that drug use among teens (and everyone else) is rampant. This is definitely the case with violence in the schools, you were more likely to be the victim of a violent attack in a school in the 60s and 70s than you are today, statistically that is. The media takes situations like Columbine and presents them as a microcosm of the entire culture and while the Columbine shootings were an unbearable tragedy, it did not mean that every local school had a teenager packing heat.
I think it's important to realize that the media has a vested interest in keeping us frightened out of our wits about these sorts of things, a frightened populace is a controllable populace.
For those of us who wonder what advantage there is in reporting such falsehoods as "the out of control, on the rise number of deaths of children who order oxycontin online", it is important to understand that these sorts of issues keep everyone distracted from matters at hand, such as outlandish numbers of jobs lost, the ever diminishing middle class, the insane levels of personal household debt, the fact that many of us are holding on by our fingernails and yet the rich get richer.
For those of us with chronic pain issues, these sorts of media scare tactics can add to feelings of helplessnes, fear and alienation. This is why forums such as this are so important, it leads to community and the ability to comment and deconstruct some of these overwhelming messages.
Thanks for letting me rant. I know this is only my second post but I have been around for a while taking everything in. Thanks to everyone for the wisdom I've found here at DB
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