ijuana and other drugs when compared to their contemporaries in private schools; these differences occurred regardless of whether the public school was one to which the student was assigned or one that had been chosen by the family (table 1). For instance, about 15 percent of students in private schools reported easy availability of marijuana compared to 30 percent of students in assigned public schools and 34 percent in public schools of choice. Although the differences between private school students and public school students' reports are not quite as striking, they also occur when access to alcohol is considered.School size also was a factor in student reports of easy availability of alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs. Students attending larger schools were more likely to report easy availability than students in smaller schools (table 1). The most striking difference in reports of easy availability was for marijuana. Fifteen percent of students at schools with fewer than 300 students said this substance was easily available at school versus 24 percent of students at schools enrolling 300 to 599 students, 29 percent at schools with 600 to 999 students, and 40 percent at schools of 1,000 or more.Figure 1.-Percent of students who reported very easy or fairly easy availability of substances at school, by student's grade level: 1993SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Household Education Survey, Youth interviews, spring 1993.Peer Approval of Alcohol, Marijuana, or Other Drug UseThe availability of alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs at school is likely linked to the acceptance of those substances by the students at the school. In order to assess peer approval, students were asked whether their friends at school thought it was all right to drink alcoholic beverages like beer, wine coolers, or liquor, to smoke marijuana, or to use drugs other than marijuana. Percentages of students who ...
