I strongly, strongly doubt it, but that seems to be the implication of this study by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. From the press release:
According to the 2007 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study of 6,511 teens (PATS Teens), the number one reason teens see for using drugs is to deal with the pressures and stress of school. In this nationally projectable study (margin of error +/- 1.6 percent), 73 percent of teens reported that school stress is the primary reason for drug use, indicating that teens' perceptions of motivating factors for using drugs are dramatically different than past research has indicated...In previous PATS Teens studies, when teen respondents were asked to select from a number of reasons for using drugs, the number one reason (65 percent) selected was to "feel cool." The 2007 study was the first to offer the option of selecting school stress as a motivator, one which nearly 3 out of 4 teens (73 percent) strongly agreed with. This was followed closely by "feeling cool" (65 percent) and "feeling better about themselves" (65 percent).
Over the past decade, studies have indicated a steady changing trend in what teens perceive as the motivations for using drugs. The "to have fun" rationales are declining, while motivations to use drugs to solve problems are increasing.
No Child Left Behind has been blamed for almost every ailment in our schools--from lice to the lack of recess. Why not blame it on drug use?
In all seriousness, it's important to note that this is the first year in the study's history that teens were given the option to pick "school stress" as the reason they do drugs. Maybe academic pressure has been leading kids to light up for years. Or maybe "the pressures and stresses of school" encompass much more than just the fear of getting bad grades or blowing a standardized exam. It might include--in the minds of respondents--social pressures, bullying, and everything else our middle schools and high schools are famous for.
Or maybe academic pressure is a bigger problem than I thought. (Maybe.)
Photo by Flickr user wiros.
