This drug report has good news, and Catholic schools play a role

Published: 2007-12-14

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Although it was somewhat overshadowed by former Sen. George Mitchell's Dec. 13 report detailing drug use among dozens of Major League Baseball players, another report released earlier in the week had better news about drug use among middle and high school students. The annual Monitoring the Future survey of eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders found that the percentage of students reporting illicit drug use in the past month is continuing a decline that began in 2001. The percentage of those in the three grades who said they had used any illicit drug -- including marijuana, Ecstasy, LSD, amphetamines, inhalants, methamphetamine, steroids, cocaine, heroin, alcohol and cigarettes -- in the past month went from 19.4 percent in 2001 to 14.8 percent in 2007, a 24 percent drop. The 2007 study involved 48,025 eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders in a nationally representative sample of 403 public and private schools. At a Dec. 11 White House event for the release of the study, there were representatives of schools where random drug testing of the student body has made a difference, including a Christian Brothers-run school near New Orleans.

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