Study Finds Discouraging Data On Central Bucks Drug Use A Survey Suggests Students There May Be Using Drugs More Than Their Peers Elsewhere In The Nation.

DOYLESTOWN BOROUGH — Students in the Central Bucks School District are more likely to use drugs and alcohol than the average student elsewhere in the country, according to the results of a national survey released by school officials yesterday.

Illicit-substance use in Central Bucks is almost exactly what it was 10 years ago, according to the survey.

``It's frustrating that our efforts do not seem to be making a difference,'' said N. Robert Laws, superintendent of schools.

More than 1,600 Central Bucks students ages 14 to 17 participated in the American Drug and Alcohol Survey last year, along with hundreds of thousands of other teens across the country. The Central Bucks results were released at a school board meeting last night.

The news was not good. Fifty-eight percent of the district's seniors reported having smoked marijuana, compared with 50 percent nationally. Forty-four percent of seniors in Central Bucks reported having been drunk within a month of taking the survey, compared with 34 percent nationally. And 17 percent of the district's seniors reported having used inhalants, such as the one that authorities say may have contributed to the fatal crash that killed five Penncrest High School teens in January. Nationally, 16 percent of seniors said they had used inhalants.

A similar drug survey had been given locally twice before - in 1989 and in 1992. According to those results, substance use among Central Bucks teens dipped in 1992. But those numbers have now rebounded.

The discouraging news comes at a time when local events have raised concern about teen drug and alcohol use. Less than two months ago, a 16-year-old Central Bucks East High School student who police say was under the influence of alcohol crashed a speeding car into the school gym. In September, another 16-year-old student at that school was arrested for selling LSD.

``Tomorrow, if I were looking for a particular drug, where would I go?'' Laws asked at a news conference yesterday afternoon. ``I guess I'd go to school, which scares me.''

While the survey indicated that few students take drugs on school grounds, more than a fifth of students reported using drugs or alcohol on the way to school and right after school.