MHS Students Plan Pot Smoking on Prom Night

by Judy Silberstein

(May 31, 2007) Keeping kids from drinking, drugging or other wild behavior on prom night is a perennial battle for Mamaroneck parents, police and school officials. An anonymous tip emailed to the Gazette this week suggests the battle is far from being won. A group of Mamaroneck High School students appeared to be making plans for heavy drinking and pot smoking at the prom on June 8.

The email included a copy of a May 28 message from the social networking website Facebook.com in which an MHS senior contacts 18 friends with the following query: “ hi everyone. most of you know that i have been planning to buy a fat bag of nugs for our beloved prom weekend. who is interested in gettin in on it?” The poster suggests a “half ounce of good but not outstanding herb for 150” [dollars] would be sufficient. He tells the group, “its fine stuff i tried it last night and i figure it would do since we'd be drunk anyway.”

Within an hour, six friends reply “im down.”

Because the tipster’s email address indicated some involvement with Mamaroneck hockey, the Gazette contacted MHS Coach Mike Chiapparelli for comment. “Kids do some stupid stuff,” he said. “They should make better decisions about Facebook and about drugs.”

Coach Chiapparelli suggested that marijuana use appears to be on the rise.

“We’re seeing more and more little plastic bags around campus,” he added, referring to the preferred storage medium for marijuana. His feeling is that “there is less drinking and more pot smoking right now.”

Survey results from 2006 confirm that pot usage is a growing problem at MHS, more so than at the average American high school. Asked about substance use in the last 30 days, 38.2% of MHS seniors reported marijuana use in 2006, compared to only 22.4% at MHS in 2002. Nationwide, the 2005 rate was only 19.8%, lower than the 2002 rate of 21.5%. (See: Alcohol and Drug Use Rises Among MHS Students.)

But contrary to the coach’s impression, there may also be more drinking in Mamaroneck than in previous years or in other communities. In 2006, 75.9% of seniors reported drinking alcohol in the previous month. That was a major increase from 2002, when the reported rate was only 49.8%. Nationwide, the alcohol use spike had not occurred: the 2005 national rate was 47%, lower than the 2002 rate of 48.6%.

“Although it saddens me, it doesn’t surprise me,” commented Janet Buchbinder, member of the school board and president of RADAR (Responsible Action: A Drug and Alcohol Resource). When told about the Facebook posting, she said, ”We are not immune to this very serious public health issue.”

Ms. Buchbinder was also not surprised that MHS teens were openly discussing their drug use on Facebook. “That’s how accepted this is in our culture – they are not perceiving the dangers in what they are doing," she said. "That they are not even trying to hide their identity shows that they don’t fear any consequences for this behavior.”

RADAR received a federal grant that will provide close to $500K over five years to combat teen drinking and drug use. (See: RADAR Gets $500K* to Combat Teen Alcohol & Drug Use.)

As part of the grant work, RADAR has conducted a series of community forums in the past two months. (See: Local Fight Against Substance Abuse Yields Some Success and Parent Education Comes First in Preventing Teen Drug Use.)