Dr. Benjamin Reyes, program manager of the Treatment and Rehabilitation Centers of the DOH, said out of the 8,670 students nationwide who underwent drug testing, 0.8 percent were proven drug users.
"The number of the students who took the drug testing is more than enough to generalize our real situation," Reyes said in yesterday’s weekly Meet the Press forum at the National Press Club.
Reyes said there are 20 million high school students enrolled this school year, according to the data of the Department of Education.
He said that from November 2004 to March last year, the urine samples of 30 students each from 287 randomly selected private and public high schools nationwide were tested for marijuana and methamphetamine hydrochloride, better known as shabu. The students ranged in age from 11 to 20 years old.
Reyes said out of 8,670 students screened, 67 respondents — all males — tested positive. Of this figure, 54 students were found to have used marijuana while the rest tested positive for shabu.
"Majority were using marijuana," Reyes said, adding most of the cases were in Regions 10 and 11.
He said the figure of .8 percent is very small compared to other countries like Israel, with 33 percent of its high school students tested positive for drug use.
"One out of three students in Israel is a drug user, (but) in our country (it is) not even one (out) of 100,000 students," Reyes said.
He pointed out that with 8,600 respondents, the drug testing "is more than statistically valid. We can generally approximate how big is the problem among high school students."
Reyes said they are also conducting drug testing among college students.