How easy is it for high-school students to get drugs, and how do they feel about drug use? The answers may depend upon who is asking.

The Albany Times-Union reported May 18 that a survey by a student journalist at Shenendehowa High School East in Clifton Park, N.Y., found that 92 percent of students said they can easily get marijuana, 90 percent said they had friends who smoke pot, and about three-quarters said they felt that smoking marijuana was socially acceptable. Those rates are significantly higher than typical results of national surveys of student drug use and attitudes.

Shenendehowa senior Mariam Ballout posed 14 questions on drugs and sex to 152 students in their homerooms for her study, which was published in the student newspaper, The Shen Pen. "The figures are worse than I would have hoped," said school board president Gary DiLallo. "I don't think I'm shocked, unfortunately."

Ballout's data on drug use was closer to national survey data: 36 percent of Shenendehowa students said they had tried marijuana, and 16 percent said they had tried other drugs. Overall, 53 percent said they felt that drug use was a problem in the school district.