University of Virginia Library

State Survey Cites Drug Use
By High School Students

By LINDA EICHELBAUM

A new state survey taken by the
Virginia Highway Research Council
indicates that two out of every ten
students in Charlottesville area high
schools have used marijuana at least once
in the past year and one out of every ten
has used hard drugs.

The poll was taken by the Research
Council to determine the role that drugs
play in automobile accidents. A total of
357 high school students in the
Charlottesville and Albemarle area were
polled by the Council.

According to the researchers, the poll
also indicates the wide use drugs such as
LSD, heroin, amphetamines,
barbiturates, and speed among high
school students.

Marijuana Use

The survey states that 18.5 per cent of
the students polled admitted to the use of
marijuana at least once within the past
year. When broken down by sex, 25.5 per
cent of the boys and 9.9 per cent of the
girls said that they had smoked dope.

Additionally, 11.5 per cent of the
students said they had used hard drugs
during the past 12 months. Of these
students, 16.8 per cent were males and 5
per cent were females.

Numerically, Charlottesville ranks
second only to Northern Virginia in the
amount of drugs used among students.
However, this figure could be a sampling
error due to the comparably small
population of this area, noted Wayne S.
Ferguson and William L. Howard,
conductors of the survey.

Questionnaire

Statewide the survey showed that, 86
per cent of the high school students
questioned had never used marijuana or
any of the five hard drugs listed in the
questionnaire.

Fourteen per cent of the students said
that they had used either marijuana or
hard drugs. Of this number, 12.3 per cent
had used marijuana and 7.7 per cent had
used hard drugs.

More students had used marijuana ten
times or more than those who had used it
less than ten times. The frequent use of
marijuana was closely associated with the
use of other drugs. Eighty-two per cent of

the students classified as frequent users of
marijuana had taken other drugs.

These figures, however, do not
correspond with the popular concept of
the wide spread use of drugs in the high
schools, the researchers stated. Estimates
of drug use are placed at 50 per cent or
more in the predominately urban areas of
the state This survey does not
substantiate this estimation.

In the past three to five years, the
survey indicates, some 5,000 accidents
involving high school students in Virginia
have been related to the use of marijuana
and drugs.

Also reported was the fact that while
two to three per cent of alcohol related
accidents were fatal, about 17 per cent of
the marijuana and drug related mishaps
resulted in fatalities.