[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 11, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1187-E1188]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   STATEMENTS BY DANIELLE DUPUIS AND PHILIP BIDWELL, ESSEX TECHNICAL 
                CENTER, REGARDING DRUG USE BY TEENAGERS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 11, 1997

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of my colleagues I would 
like to have printed in the Record this statement by high school 
students from Essex Technical Center in Vermont, who were speaking at 
my recent town meeting on issues facing young people.

       Ms. Dupuis. My name is Danielle Dupuis and I live in 
     Colchester. This is Philip Bidwell, he lives in Underhill but 
     attends Essex Technical Center. Rebecca Johnson and Troy 
     Hibbard cannot be here with us today.
       We did a survey on teenage drug use in our school and we 
     found that 50 percent of the students in our school use 
     drugs, we found that 21 percent of them use them on a daily 
     basis. The top two drugs in high school were marijuana and 
     alcohol, and they are both used by 50 percent of the 
     students.
       We feel that teenage drug use in this country is a rising 
     problem. Everyday in and out of school students are using 
     substances whether they are legal or illegal. We feel that a 
     required high school level drug education class would be a 
     way to solve this problem.
       Mr. Bidwell. Basically we think that it is more and more of 
     a problem everyday in the school systems and we think that in 
     order to resolve this we should have a class that is required 
     in the school system for drug education because it is not 
     that the fifth grade students have a class where they are 
     introduced to drugs and what the effects are and stuff, but 
     as teenagers these get more and more into peer pressure and 
     they need to be brought up against anything that can happen. 
     it is not just a fact of people doing them but people are 
     dying from them.
       Ms. Dupuis. We found that 25 percent of the students that 
     use drugs use them in school.
       Mr. Bidwell. I think that students, if you go up and talk 
     to somebody like a student, that is just not normal to 
     anybody else, but if they are going to somebody the same age 
     just like them they are more open about it.
       Ms. Dupuis. They feel more comfortable. Other drugs were 
     used, but marijuana and alcohol were the main concerns. We 
     surveyed marijuana, cocaine, speed, acid, alcohol, mushrooms, 
     hashish and we then had another category and those were all 
     low, they ran about five or six percent, in that area. There 
     is such a big campaign against drugs but yet there are so 
     many students that are using drugs, you want to know what is 
     the big deal, what is it like? I will try it once. And they 
     try it once and that is it, you are addicted for life. I 
     think a lot of it has to do with just being cool, too.


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