In the Spring of 1987, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association in conjunction with Boston University's Graduate School of Education conducted a statewide survey of drug and alcohol use among secondary school student athletes in Massachusetts. The results presented in this report are based upon responses from 1,200 ninth through twelfth grade students from a random sampling of 12 schools across the commonwealth.

Major Findings

Drug and alcohol use among student athletes is commonplace in the ninth through twelfth grades. Seventy-eight percent of the respondents reported using alcohol in the last twelve months. Analysis of illicit drug use during the last twelve months prior to the survey indicated that marijuana is the drug of choice. Marijuana had been used by 33 percent of the respondents, cocaine by 8 percent, amphetamines by 7 percent, and psychedelics by 7 percent. It should be noted that these findings very likely present a moderate picture of adolescent drug and alcohol use; however, it clearly should destroy the myth that participants in interscholastic athletics are immune from any involvement with alcohol and drugs.

Other results include:

• The use of illicit drugs is similar for males and females.
  
  
• The start of first alcohol use among 56 percent of student athletes is prior to high school and the start of first marijuana use among 50 percent of student athletes is prior to entering high school.
  
  
• Of the percentage of student athletes (78 percent) who have used alcohol during the past twelve months, 27 percent reported use twice a week, 7 percent three times a week, 4 percent four times a week, and 25 percent five or more times a week. As per the amount of drinking on each occasion of drinking, it was reported 37 ppercent of those student athletes use three to five drinks, 27 percent six to nine drinks, and 12 percent ten or more.
  
  Additional information ascertained from the statewide survey includes the following:
  
  
• Seventy-five percent of MIAA student athletes reported a knowledge of the MIAA chemical health eligibility standard.
  
  
• Sixty-six percent reported the MIAA rule is good, 13 percent too lenient and 20 percent too strict.
  
  
• Forty-seven percent of MIAA student athletes reported they had violated the eligibility rule and not been penalized.
  
  
• Seventy-nine percent reported an athletic eligibility rule regarding drugs and alcohol should exist.