Treatment should be board’s focus

EDITORIAL: Student drug use survey reveals schools need to address alcohol use

By:
   Mark Twain’s famous quip about the three varieties of mendacity — "lies, damned lies and statistics" — could be expanded by the addition of surveys.
   And last week’s review at the Board of Education meeting of the survey of drug and alcohol use of Hillsborough High School students offered some testing of the credibility of the information gained by the survey.
   We suspect many in the community were able to look into the survey’s numbers and support nearly any notion they had about local drug use.
   Where some will say we have a drug problem in the school — one third of all students reported having tried marijuana — others will say there’s no serious problem — Hillsborough’s number of pot smokers is only two-thirds of the national average for high schoolers.
   Compounding the problem is the question of whether or not the answers are reliable at all — the school counselor reviewing the survey noted the actual levels of drug use by students are probably higher than reported because the survey was only given to students who received parental permission to participate.
   But we were struck by the fact that one potential outcome of the survey — in fact, the reason it was given at all — is the possible implementation of a drug testing policy.
   Because we feel the results do not justify such an expensive and intrusive course of action.
   The board will be reviewing the survey and deciding whether or not they feel testing is justified, but in the mean time, there is a lot they can do that would be more likely to be beneficial.
   First, the board must change its policies on students found using drugs from one focusing on punishment to one focusing on treatment.
   It makes no sense to give students mandatory suspensions for using drugs — that seems to free up a lot time for further recreational drug use.
   Also, the board can focus instead on the one area Hillsborough students genuinely appear to be headed for trouble: alcohol.
   Hillsborough seniors exceed the national average in not only the numbers reporting having used alcohol but in the number reporting having been drunk. It is the only drug in which local use is above the national average.
   The tacit acceptance of alcohol use that would be given by ignoring this part of the survey and focusing on the use of marijuana and narcotics would be to ignore the dangers posed by drinking.
   Binge drinking is a rapidly growing problem on college campuses across the country, as is the incidence of alcoholism among an increasing number of young adults.
   The fact that as many as 30 percent of high school seniors are abusing this drug with their parents’ knowledge — as the survey cited — strains not credibility but responsibility.
   Yes, we have a drug problem in Hillsborough and the board needs to act.
   But drug testing is not the answer to this problem, unless the school starts using breathalyzers.