INC NEWS - Substance Abuse in DPS -- interesting input from a neighbor

[Melissa Rooney]

Thought the INC could benefit from reading the
following email which I received from a concerned
neighbor. I have deleted her name and affiliation so
as not to interfere with her involvement. Cheers,
Melissa

_____________


Thanks for sending out the report on the alcohol and
drug use in Durham County. Since the numbers of abuse
by teenagers in this report are based on arrests the
data is extremely misleading.
 
Because you are so involved in the community, and
because I have more info than I ever wanted to have
due to serving on the Substance Abuse Committee at
*******, I decided to write to you about drug and
alcohol problems in schools.
 
There is evidence that school administrators are often
looking the other way when students are selling and
offering drugs at school to safeguard the school
profile. So as long as there is no "trouble", students
are not being disciplined for selling drugs in school.
 
I think Chapel Hill schools are actually acknowledging
the problem and dealing with it much better than
Durham. There seems to be an openness that I did not
experience at Jordan.
 
The latest stats show that about 50% of high school
students have had a drink in the past 30 days and at
least 20% have had three or more drinks during the
course of an evening (binge drinking). Most of the
students are starting to drink between the summer of
8th and 9th grade per child psychologists working in
the CH area. We're hoping that with the recent change
in NC state laws where a teenager can be charged with
consumption by breath-analyzers instead of proof of
possession will help in a serious crack down of
underage drinking.
 
 


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