Drug Abuse on High School Students Essay

The hypothesis for this report is that as an individual increases drug use, their success within their education decreases. To prove this is true, there were many investigations involved in the process. Firstly, there was secondary research provided in order to see the drug use of all teenagers in Ontario, as well as dropout rates in Ontario as a whole. As well as definitions, general drug information, and other factors of these variables. Then, there was primary research used to compare the findings from the secondary research to just a sample of students from the Catholic Central High School community. In order to further research the topic of the effects of drug use on high school students and its correlation to educational achievement, 24 surveys were conducted within the Catholic Central High School community (refer to appendix, pg. 2-3), and of these 24 participants, approximately 8% are grade 9 students, 21% being grade 10 students, 29% being grade 11 students, and 42% being grade 12 students (refer to appendix, pg. 4, graph A). Secondary research states that according to the Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS, 2007), 65% of teens say they use drugs to â€Å"feel cool† and to have the approval of others, and their desire for social acceptance. Contrarily, primary research showed that 50% of students surveyed think that friends do not have any influence in their decisions regarding drug or alcohol use, whereas 33% think they do have influence (refer to appendix, pg. 4, graph B). According to Partnership for a Drug-Free Canada (2010), 73% of teens report that number-one reason for using drugs is to deal with the pressures and the stress for school. Likewise, primary research states that 70. 6% of the 24 participants have consumed drugs or alcohol before or during school hours, which shows how teenagers are using school as an excuse to consume drugs or alcohol (refer to appendix, pg. 4, graph C). Primary research indicates that 70. 8% of the students surveyed have experimented with drugs (refer to appendix, pg. 5, graph D), and also, these drugs that they have experimented with were for non-medical purposes. Surprisingly, the top 5 drugs most consumed by the participants are Marijuana (100%), Tobacco (47. 1%), Salvia (41. 2%), Mushrooms (35. 3%), and Cocaine (29. 4%). Refer to appendix, pg. 5, graph E). Similarly, secondary research shows that many teens, 51% to be exact, mistakenly believe that it’s safer to abuse a prescription drug than it is to use illegal drugs. Secondary research explains that the majority of teenagers consume drugs or alcohol because their parents are not paying enough attention to their teenage children, because of family problems, because they have family members who have drug or alcohol addiction problems, or because they are living in a single-parent household which would aslo mean that that single parent does not have enough time to know what their children are up to. Contrastingly, primary research shows that within the students surveyed, 58. 3% are part of a nuclear family (mother, father, and 1 or more biological or adopted children). (Refer to appendix, pg. 5, graph F). Also, 75% do not have family members with drug addiction problems (Refer to appendix, pg. 6, graph G). According to Canada’s Labour Force Survey (1990), nearly 340,000 young people aged 20 to 24, or 1 out of every 6 (16. 6%) had not obtained a high school diploma and were not enrolled in school due to their involvement with mostly tobacco and also illicit drugs. Canada’s Labour Force passed the same survey almost 20 years later, in 2010, the dropout rate decreased and it was now 1 in every 12 (8. 5%) of 20 to 24 year-olds that had not obtained their high school diploma due to the same reasons mentioned above. Contradictorily, primary research demonstrates that out of the 24 participants, 20 of them (83. 3%) feel that students who drop out of high school are stereotyped as people who are involved in drug/alcohol related activities (refer to appendix, pg. , graph H). And also, that 75% of the students think that alcohol and drug use has increased over time among teenagers (refer to appendix, pg. 6, graph I). To conclude, it was found that the primary research and the secondary research are both similar and different in many ways, as in some points the articles, books, and online resources agrees with what the 24 participants know and think about the topic being discussed, and sometimes it does not.