Drug Use in an Alternative High School

Abstract

The drug involvement of students in an alternative high school is reported. Students include those transferred for behavior problems or dropouts returning to complete school. Drug use rates are exceptionally high, with significantly higher lifetime prevalence for nearly every drug. Current use of drugs is also very high, and 70 percent are in the two most serious adolescent drug use types; about a third are polydrug users, currently using at least two drugs with different psychoactive effects, and another third are stimulant users, taking marijuana, uppers, and/or cocaine. Only alcohol and marijuana were started earlier than other students–these students started both in early junior high. These extreme levels of involvement suggest further assessment of alternative schools and, if generalizability is confirmed, focusing of prevention and treatment programs on these high risk environments.