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Millions of US teens attend "drug-infested schools" according to a national survey of attitudes on substance abuse released yesterday.
Thirty-one per cent of high school students - more than 4 million - see drug dealing, illegal drug use or students high or drunk at least once a week on their school grounds, said the annual survey by the National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.
And 9 per cent of middle school students, or more than 1 million, see classmates engaging in drug-related activity at school at least once a week.
The results also show that since 2002, the proportion of students who attend schools where drugs are used, kept or sold soared 39 per cent for high school students and 63 per cent for those in middle school.
CASA chairman Joseph Califano said the survey shows that "our nation's youth are drenched in a culture where drug and alcohol abuse are commonplace and that drug-infested schools encourage the idea that it's cool to get high and drunk. Parents should wake up to this reality ... "
The survey questioned 1063 12- to 17-year-olds and 550 parents.
- Reuters
