Student Drug Use in Maryland Counties

Over the past couple decades, drugs have become an increasing part of American society. Music has changed and an explosion of new genres has emerged since the 50’s and art continues to become more and more creative. Despite the increase of drug use, American laws still make use of these substances illegal in hopes of increasing the safety of the youth of today. Despite attempts to keep drugs out of high schools, high school graduates admit to having tried various drugs over the course of their life. Drug use does not stop after high school and many students will go on to experiment with new drugs in college, where they are away from the watchful gaze of parents.
I collected data from various Maryland counties that contain high school districts. In these districts, polls were taken to find the statistics of high school graduates that admit to trying various types of drugs in their high school years. The counties that were studied include:
· Allegany
· Anne Arundel
· Baltimore
· Frederick
· Garrett
· Montgomery
· Prince George’s
· Talbot
According to the statistics used from CESAR (Center for Substance Abuse Research), cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana have the highest percentage of abuse in high school students. This is not surprising due to the fact that these are some of the easier accessible drugs to younger students. Cigarettes and alcohol alone can be purchased by those of a certain age. The fourth most common drug used by high schoolers are amphetamines. These include Adderall, Vyvanse or any form of speed which gives energy to the students and helps focus when it comes to testing. The counties with the highest use of amphetamines are: Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Garrett, and Montgomery.
The counties that did not have the higher percentage of amphetamine use were Frederick, Prince George’s and Talbot. Other than the use of cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana, Frederick County’s fourth highest used drug by high school students are designer drugs. This includes MDMA, ecstasy, molly and various other drugs that are likely to have cropped up with the increasingly popular rave scene in Frederick. Prince George’s county’s fourth highest rated drug is PCP. This drug didn’t rank high in statistics for other counties, however it is a scary drug that seems to be much more accessible in P.G. county than the other counties. Lastly, Talbot County ranked “other hallucinogens” as the fourth highest rated drug. This includes drugs such as mushrooms and mescaline but not LSD, which had its own statistics for each county.
Each county shared the same statistics in having cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana as the highest used drug admitted by highs school students. Amphetamines were the fourth highest rated drug out of a majority of the other counties due to accessibility through prescription and retail. Designer drugs statistics seemed to be the fifth highest rated drug with statistics increasing for each county.
The statistics that were used in this project came from 2003. In the eight years that has passed since then, drug use seems to be an increasing problem for high schoolers, according to parents. Schools are working hard to remain “drug free”, however they cannot control what students do outside of campus. As long as police continue to crack down on the sale of drugs within the high school property, students will have a harder time gaining access to various drugs keeping as minimal amount of them out of school property.