The “awareness” of drugs among rural elementary school students was studied with a word-association test of drug slang and words with no drug connotations given to students randomly selected from each of the six grades. The first grades were conscious primarily of alcohol. The significant rise in drug-related responses came between the third and fourth grades, while the biggest shift to non-alcohol drug responses came between the fourth and fifth grades. The study suggests that rural students are not immune to the influence of the drug culture. Curriculum planners should determine when the local students develop an awareness of drugs.
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