SCOTTSDALE, AZ (CBS5) -
The three R's aren't the only thing your kids are getting in class. According to the Centers for Disease Control, Arizona schools are No. 1 in the country for students getting drugs like cocaine, heroin and prescription pills.
"A few years ago I contacted all of the schools in the area and offered to do free seminars. They weren't interested. They're in denial that there is even a problem." said D.J. Diebold.
Diebold is a psychotherapist with a practice in Scottsdale who specializes in addiction. He says the number of teens he counsels with drug problems has doubled over the past decade.
Numbers from the Center of Disease Control back up his claim. It says more than one in every three high school students in Arizona has been offered, sold or given drugs at school.
"That's the age where they first start experimenting. Quite often times that's the first time they realized that mom and dad aren't perfect and that leads them to a very dark place," said Diebold.
Parents often take the blame for their children's drug use but Diebold said it's time for schools to step up.
"The school holds responsibility not to worry so much about politics and worry a little bit more about walking the talk and the honesty about what's going on and not burying their head in the sand," said Diebold.
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