More than half of the Santa Clarita Valley's high school students have smoked pot. According to the results of a student survey by the city of Santa Clarita and the William S. Hart Union High School District, if you have a child who is a senior in a local high school there is a 59 percent chance that he or she has tried marijuana. Here in Santa Clarita, one of the safest cities in the nation, we may sometimes be a little complacent about problems like drug and alcohol use among teen-agers. Odds are, it is your kid. But the fact remains that the numbers of local students who say they have tried drugs and alcohol are alarming, and the students who are speaking out about the issue paint a frightening picture of just how available these things are to teen-agers.
Illegal drugs are, according to the kids, quite easy to find.
And if the guy at the corner liquor store won't sell booze to a teen-ager, odds are it can be pimped from an adult in the parking lot. And they're just the ones who got caught. Fortunately, the city, the SCV Sheriff's Station and the Hart district aren't taking these numbers lying down. Last week, an unprecedented multi-agency panel discussion was held in which school, city and law enforcement officials heard from each other, students and parents about the problem. No solution was reached overnight, but the session at City Hall was a positive step.