Drug abuse and the schools.

E XPERIMENTATION with various chemical substances is the latest fad among teenagers today. Sometimes the fad is a harmless one, and the substance used for experimentation has no adverse reaction on the body: for example, the smoking of banana skins, wheat, and lettuce. At other times, although the substances ingested are drugs, it is difficult to ascertain the degree of chemical risk. In these categories we would list the smoking of crushed aspirin, the drinking of diluted eyewash, and the ingestion of such varied substances as meat tenderizer and deodorant. New drug “turn-ons” appear daily. In addition teen-agers also use a number of drugs which are recognized as having harmful effects in varying degrees; these include marihuana, LSD, the amphetamines, barbiturates, and glue (by sniffing it) Alcohol does not seem to be a drug of choice among this age group. Previous work has been focused on psychiatric outpatient and hospital treatment of adverse drug reactions(7, 8, 9, 11) and on the degree of risk incurred in using the various substances enumerated. But