Drug use in schools is at an 83% increase since 2019, according to the EdWeek Research Center. Furthermore, it has permeated throughout the middle school level when kids are at a vulnerable crux between puberty and exposure to more mature world views, values, problems, and dangers. Rowe Middle School in the North Clackamas School District is notorious for its student’s trade and abuse of drugs, and as the issues that plague middle schools traverse the road to higher levels of education, so too does the threat of drug overdose, poor academic performance, psychosocial problems (forming relationships with others, having a healthy self-concept), neurocognitive deficits (trouble remembering, interacting with others), and increased likelihood of developing a substance use disorder. Coupled with the proved consequences of drug abuse, (such as early dropout, rehab referral, the connotations surrounding homelife, and the lasting effects that take their toll not only on them but the abused safety of the people/environments around them for years to come) scrutiny of our schools, the treatment of our children, and the pitfalls of our systems is long overdue. 

Firstly, drug use is often denotative of a struggling life circumstance. This could be where they are financially, home life, parental/role model presence, access to drugs, and the type of peers they maintain. Adolescents are hypersensitive to the “good-feel” effect of drugs and easily influenced toward becoming users. Well-meaning or otherwise, plenty of parents fail to communicate the risk of drug use. According to McInturff, the earlier an adolescent is exposed to drugs, the more likely addiction is later in life, meaning that our system and its inability to cater to student’s needs and education outside of academics is a massive contributing factor in shaping the lives of the people young students grow up to be. 

Furthermore, As stated by UAB Medicine, “Our brains are still developing until age 26. In teens, the frontal cortex is especially undeveloped — the area of the brain that plans ahead, takes precautions, and develops reward patterns that determine what we pursue to feel good.” This affects their ability to form and maintain relationships that would be essential to positive growth or avoidance of a course of their future that could lead to anything from impaired mental capacity to death; just as much, it deteriorates their performance in other arenas of life such as the accumulation of knowledge, whether it be extracurriculars or  real-life applicable skill sets hindered in their development (often leaving adolescents who grow up to be users less capable of dealing with issues that arise on a daily basis, holding down jobs, and common maintenance.) Consequently, the chemicals the brain produces when on drugs have the certain eventual effect of canceling out the brain’s natural ability to produce those neurotransmitters, such as dopamine. This causes these chemical compounds required to feel “good” being only attainable through abuse. 

This also affects other people. Drugs influence huge behavioral changes — becoming “secretive” or “suspicious”, change of peer groups, neglect of responsibilities, volatile mood swings, and reduced empathy for the manner in which their actions affect others. The pollution of their environment and connection to others may have a domino effect, leading to a school-wide — or even district-wide — issue depending on the scope of the problem. The apathetic nature of students toward the concept of community fails to construct an environment built on any medium of trust and mutual respect. 

Counter to these points, some people might think “survival of the fittest.” A lack of empathy and social connection with/to each other is a point of constant failure which we saddle our children with, children who grow up the be the kinds of people kids are told to be scared of in the first place — whether justified or bigoted, the plights of others fade to a distant hum only perceivable on nights that we consider existentialism as a course of action — a plight remedied often by a few hours of sleep and the call of morning. 

Many changes have to be made to curb the growing threat of addiction in children and the consequences that follow them and the people around them to adulthood, starting with the funding to do so and a maturity of the curriculum fed to students from a younger age. In the meantime, more funds for sponsoring student’s activities and building extracurriculars (teachers in Milwaukie High School have expressed that they would love to do more for their students and start clubs, but found themselves lacking in time and money to do so.) Funding for a psychology department at a middle school level that can check in with kids, evaluate their health and support. The morals we instill in them from a young age, the support we offer them, and the environments we create all are capable of answering child drug use and that which they perpetuate. 

There is work to be done.