A recent Bear Facts survey confirmed the 2012 Youth Health Survey’s findings that two out of three LZHS students are alcohol free and found that four out of five students are marijuana free, contrary to popular belief.

            Of the 376 students surveyed, 62.5 percent thought the results of the 2012 Youth Health Survey were inaccurate.  79 percent of those students felt the number of students who use drugs or alcohol should be higher.

            “[The results are] surprising because you only hear about the people that do drink and you don’t hear about the kids that don’t, so you think everybody’s doing it,” Hayley Banas, senior, said.

            The findings disprove the idea that “everyone’s doing it” at LZHS, and in fact, a large majority of students are neither drinking nor using marijuana.

            While most students choose not to consume alcohol, approximately 73.8 percent of students said if they wanted to, they could get alcohol.  Most students said they could get it from friends. Getting alcohol through parents was also a common response.

“That seems weird considering my parents would never [buy me alcohol],” Banas said. “Most parents are protecting their kids from drinking, but when they’re directly giving it to them, that’s just kind of surprising.”

            While some parents may encourage teen drinking, according to the survey, almost no students said their parents would provide them with marijuana.  Instead, many students said they could get it from friends, but 80.2 percent of students reported they have not smoked marijuana in the last year. 

            Bear Facts’ findings vary from the results of the 2012 Youth Health Survey, which found 24 percent of students smoked marijuana in the last year, as opposed to the 19.8 percent of students who told Bear Facts they have smoked marijuana.

            “I wish that number was higher. I wish that we had kids who chose not to smoke marijuana and that we had students who didn’t chose to drink alcohol until they were of age,” Chad Beaver, dean of students, said.  “In the long run, it just has a negative effect on you.”

            In an attempt to increase the number of drug and alcohol free students, the Social Norms campaign launched the monthly edition of “The Stall Street Journal” and all sophomores are required to take a health class which teaches about the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol.

            “Ultimately when you leave here, we can’t make you do or not do something,” says Beaver, “but we can educate you about the negative effects that can take place because of it.”