THE WRONG KIND OF "HIGH" SCHOOL

He’s a good looking young guy that all the girls are nuts over. He’s friends with all kinds of kids in the high school and one of the most popular. He’s an amazing skateboarder. He’s one of the most social teenagers I have ever met. He can hold a conversation with anyone from a five year-old kid to a crabby old grandma. He makes sure he looks good with his dress attire at all times, staying up on the hottest clothes. Oh, and one more thing: he loves to smoke marijuana. Well, I should say loved because now he’s on fire for Jesus and loves to do anything possible to praise Him.
This young man is a kid that really had me confused. He looked like he had it all together and you couldn’t hold anything against him. But recently he admitted to me that smoking and selling pot were his main focuses in life. This is such a common trend among teens in your local high school. It’s no longer just the kids that look like “bad” kids that our getting more deeply involved with drug use and selling. You can find the best athletic star high during class with a pocket full of mom’s and dad’s prescription pills to sell to anyone willing to buy a cheap high. According to a study by Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, 61% of high school teens say their high school has a major drug problem, compared with 44% in 2002. Problems are rising in middle school, too, with 31% of middle schoolers saying their school has drug issues. That’s up from 19% five years ago.
These kids have turned to drugs because that seems to be the answer for their lives. I disagree with psychologists who think there is a deeper issue at hand with anyone who uses drugs. Some kids do have deeper issues, but others just want to have fun. When I first became a Christian, playing capture the flag or watching the Princess Bride on a Friday night with a couple dozen Christian kids that could never watch anything PG13 or worse was not my idea of fun. I missed my old life of partying and freedom to choose whatever I wanted to do. I missed smoking pot because that was my idea of fun. And not just fun but that’s what cool people did. I was too cool to be with those “Christian Nerds”. (I happen to still hate The Princess Bride but I am far from cool these days.)
With drugs becoming more and more of an issue in the high schools, we need to prepare our kids for that reality. Make sure that we are engaging with them about the issue. Not just telling them they better not do it. Make sure they keep an eye open for who is doing the drugs and not assume it’s the kids with the baggy dark clothes with long hair and smells like a dead skunk. It could well be the kids that they can’t wait to bring home and show off how cool of a friend they’ve made. We should make sure our kids are proclaiming that Jesus came “that they may have life, and have it to the full.” If our kids don’t pay attention and take action, then it’s a battle already lost and pointless to fight.