Drugs are not just present but plentiful, and in great variety, in Newfoundland and Labrador's schoolyards, students have told RCMP officers.

"Now, actually smoking a joint is as common at my school grounds as seeing somebody smoking a cigarette," Kayla Bishop, a Bay Roberts student, said at a weekend forum in St. John's organized by the RCMP.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Gerry Lynch heard plenty about the prevalence of drugs among local students.
(CBC)

The force's Newfoundland and Labrador division gathered more than 20 teenagers from across the province to participate in a youth advisory committee.

When addressing RCMP Assistant Commissioner Gerry Lynch, many called it as they've seen it.

"The youth are now growing and selling marijuana [themselves]," said Victoria Ralph, a high school student from Carbonear.

"Youth in small communities have no access to help if they want to get treatment," she said. "People who are addicted to drugs have to leave their community — or maybe even the province — to get treatment."

Jonathan Powell, who attends school in St. Anthony, said drugs usually associated with urban areas have found their way into rural communities too.

"I know there's a lot of pot on the go up there, and crystal meth and E," he said, referring to ecstasy.

Lynch told CBC News that drug abuse is never easy to tackle.

"Education, education, education," he said.

"You can do as much enforcement as you can to take the drugs off the street, but it'll be replaced by somebody else who's going to be trafficking or whatever."

The RCMP will pass on the findings of its youth panel to the provincial Education Department.