The first months of legal recreational marijuana in Colorado saw a jump in drug-policy violations in the state’s public schools, a Rocky Mountain PBS I-News analysis of Department of Education data has found.

Alarmingly, the biggest spike in violations came in the state’s middle schools, according to the analysis. The first months of legal recreational marijuana coincided with the spring and winter of the 2013-14 school year.

“Middle-schoolers are most vulnerable to being confused about marijuana,” said Dr. Christian Thurstone, attending physician for the Denver Health Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment program. “They think, ‘Well, it’s legal, so it must not be a problem.’”

In many cases, marijuana simply is more available to younger teens, officials say.

“We have seen parents come in and say, ‘Oh, that’s mine, they just took it out of my room,’ and that sort of thing,” said school resource officer Judy Lutkin of the Aurora Police Department. “Parents have it in their houses more often, and the kids just can take it from home.”

The hike in drug violations came as overall suspensions, expulsions and referrals to police for other transgressions decreased between the year of legalization and the previous academic year, 2012-2013.

Middle schools had the highest percentage increase in drug violations, rising 24 percent in the school year ending last spring. This led to a decade high of 951 drug incidents in middle schools.

The numbers

Drug incidents reported by all public schools hit a decade-high last school year, rising 7.4 percent to 5,377 incidents. There are more drug violations in high schools, but those numbers remained flat during the first year of legalization.

Statewide, since medical marijuana stores opened widely in 2010, drug incidents are the only major category of conduct violations that rose in Colorado school districts, according to the data.

In Durango School District 9-R, 2013-2014 saw a 20 percent decrease in the total number of drug-related incidents. In 2012-2013, there were 35 incidents, but that number shrank to 28 the next school year. In 9-R, like the rest of the state, the majority most of incidents were at the high school level.

Bayfield public schools reported five incidents involving drugs in 2013-14 compared with 4 in 2012-13. Ignacio public schools reported 1 incident in 2013-14 compared with five in 2012-13.

Lack of specificity

It’s hard to discern the specific types of drugs involved in the increased number of reports as statewide policies to measure and extrapolate teen use of marijuana and other drugs often are inconsistent and unreliable.

In fact, the data collected by the Colorado Department of Education does not identify any specific drugs. Instead, this data lumps prescription drugs, heroin, cocaine and marijuana all into the same category of disciplinary cases.

“I would say that at any given time, any day of the week, there are probably about 10 percent of kids in the high school that are under the influence of something,” said school resource officer Susan Condreay of the Aurora Police Department.

Marijuana, alcohol top list

Marijuana is second only to alcohol in teen substance abuse, according to the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, an annual survey from the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment.

“Alcohol is by far and away the most used substance by middle-schoolers, then it goes down for marijuana and tobacco is just below that,” Dr. Thurstone said. “Prescription drug use is No. 4, and it’s increasing, so that’s been an alarming increase, as well, that we need to pay attention to.”

Changes in the works

The Department of Education wants to address the lack of specificity in its drug reporting, according to Rep. Polly Lawrence, R-Littleton. She said she was asked to carry a bill that would require schools to be more transparent with their drug reporting, particularly about marijuana.

“We are still continuing with stakeholder meetings, but I am hoping to have a bill drafted and ready to go (this month),” Rep. Lawrence said. “If we don’t start now, we are not going to have a baseline to compare to in the future.”

She hopes that potential new requirements not only will show how legal marijuana is impacting students but also provide more data on other potentially harmful drugs.

“Colorado ranks, I think, second in prescription-drug abuse in the country, and that is something we need to keep a constant eye on,” Lawrence said. “And I think starting to monitor the marijuana use is very important, so we need to make sure that we are collecting the best data we can.”

Colorado ranks high

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health ranked Colorado as the second worst state in the country for prescription drug abuse in 2013. That year, 598 people of all ages in the state died from unintentional drug poisoning, according to the Colorado Office of Behavioral Health. That’s nearly four times the number of deaths that were caused by drunken driving during the same period.

Still, marijuana remains a top priority for school resource officers and treatment providers, especially in middle schools.

Denver Public Schools hired a district substance-abuse treatment coordinator this school year, who will focus greater attention on middle schools.

“According to our data, middle schools are where most people begin to experiment,” said John Simmons, DPS executive director of student services. “It’s much easier to stop someone from using in the first place than it is to stop it once it’s started.”

The Denver district saw a 7 percent increase in drug incidents, from 452 in 2012-2013 to 482 in the 2013-2014 year. Simmons said marijuana accounts for almost every drug incident.

But legalization supporters point out that kids aren’t coming in and buying from stores, and packages that leave the stores do not market to children.

“We have gone above and beyond to make sure that we are not marketing to children,” said Meg Sanders, owner of MiNDFUL, a cannabis company that operates in several cities in Colorado. “We feel it’s our responsibility as a responsible business to card not just once but twice for any recreational customer, and medical patients have to show several documents before they can purchase marijuana.”

Durango Herald Staff Writer Brandon Mathis contributed to this report. The Durango Herald brings you this report in partnership with Rocky Mountain PBS I-News. Learn more at rmpbs.org/news. Burt Hubbard contributed to this story.