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Teen substance abuse highlighted in survey, recent arrests
May 9, 2008
Of all the statistics released in two recent surveys of Wilton teens and parents on drinking, smoking and drug use, perhaps the most important number is the percentage of teens who look to their parents for guidance.
“Lots of parents are sort of not very optimistic about how much the kids listen to them, but the kids, if you ask them if they have a problem who do they talk to, most of them say their parents. Even three-quarters of the high schoolers,” said Dr. Archie Swindell, who conducted the surveys, during a presentation releasing the survey results at the Wilton Library on May 1.
With more than 50 residents in attendance, Dr. Swindell and a panel of experts from the town’s Task Force to Reduce Underage Drinking, Positive Directions, Youth Services and Norwalk Hospital addressed what they saw as positive steps forward, but a remaining need to address the misconception among older teens, and many parents, that alcohol and marijuana do not pose long-term health risks.
Compounding the growing concern were a slew of underage arrests that day and in the days that followed involving marijuana and alcohol possession and use in the Wilton schools.
The day of the presentation, two male students, ages 16 and 14, were caught with marijuana at Middlebrook School. That night, a Wilton High School student was charged with possession of alcohol, after being stopped by police. The next day, a student at Wilton High School was found to be drunk in the school, with alcohol in his car, and on Monday, two 15-year-old girls were charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia at Wilton High School.
Police Captain Michael Lombardo said the high number of drug and alcohol calls at the school was out of the ordinary for the department.
“From the beginning of the year until now, it hasn’t been that busy with those types of calls in the schools,” he said. “Maybe that’s because we have a strong presence up there,” he added, noting the school resource officer who spends time each day in the various school buildings.
Capt. Lombardo said the department works with school officials to follow up on any concerns about alcohol and drug use, and also works on prevention and education measures.
The department, in fact, was the driving force behind the creation of Wilton’s task force, the main thrust of which was, at the time, to develop an ordinance allowing police to break up suspected underage drinking parties on private property. The goals and work of the task force have continued since the passage of that ordinance.
“Our ultimate goal was, and still is, that we can deter and prevent underage drinking,” said Capt. Lombardo. “Not to make arrests, that’s not our goal.”
Findings
The surveys, part of a 10-year program that has provided data on teen substance use in intervals going back to 1998, were paid for with a grant to Positive Directions, a regional center for prevention and recovery of substance abuse. A total of 942 students from grades seven through 12 took the online survey in November and December of last year, answering questions on everything from their own use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco to what they felt the prevalence was of these substances being used among their peers.
This year, for the first time, Wilton parents also took a survey, reviewing their perceptions of teen substance use in town, and how they feel about the use of certain substances. A total of 311 parents took the survey.
Among the findings, the teens reported that smoking had dropped significantly since 1998, from 8% to less than 1%, and alcohol and marijuana use also followed suit, dropping in prevalence over the years. While nearly no seventh and eighth graders reported trying cigarettes or regularly smoking, the number climbed to 3% of ninth graders, 6% of 10th graders, 19% of 11th graders and nearly 30% of 12th graders.
While both drinking and marijuana use were low among the younger teen set, graphs of the use of those substances showed a recurring theme. Dr. Swindell referred to the J-shaped curve of many graphs charting substance use, saying the sudden and significant spike in the use of both alcohol and marijuana as teens grew older corresponded with a similar sudden drop in their perception of the health risks of these two substances.
Among 12th graders, lifetime drinking was above 70% for boys and girls, with half of those students who drink reporting that they have been intoxicated more than 10 times and have more than three drinks at a time — known as binge drinking. Among the students who drink, 10% said reported drinking more than 10 times in the previous 30 days.
For younger students, lifetime drinking dropped from 20% in 1998 to 7% in 2007 for seventh and eighth graders. In the 2007 survey nearly 20% of ninth graders reported lifetime drinking, climbing to 33% for 10th graders, 51% for 11th graders and 71% for 12th graders.
“Wilton is below the national average among the young kids and above national average among the older students,” said Dr. Swindell of alcohol use. “The parents are way underestimating the degree to which their own kids are drinking,” he said regarding the parent survey results. “That’s not too surprising.”
A similar trend was found with lifetime marijuana use, with 0% of seventh graders having tried the drug, 1% of eighth graders, nearly 5% of ninth graders, 8% of 10th graders, 18% of 11th graders and 36% of 12th graders have tried marijuana.
Among high school seniors and juniors, 20-30% reported buying drugs, while 11-14% reported selling drugs.
As for harder illicit drugs, 5% of 12th graders reported use in their lifetime, 3% in 11th grade, 2% in 10th grade, 1% in ninth grade an very few seventh and eighth graders. Dr. Swindell said in the report summary that while a “significant number” reported lifetime use, “very few had used such substances in the past 30 days, suggesting that experimentation generally has not led to habituation.”
He said drinking and smoking appeared to be a “gateway” of sorts for other substance use.
“The striking point to me is... the kids who point to lifetime drinking do a lot more of everything else,” said Dr. Swindell, and the same is true of smoking as it relates to marijuana use. “The kids who don’t smoke cigarettes, about 15% of them smoke marijuana. The kids who do smoke cigarettes, two-thirds of them smoke marijuana.”
Perceptions
Combating the perception of health risks — particularly among older teens, and their parents when it comes to marijuana and alcohol — is the first step in working to lower the use of those substances, said Dr. Swindell.
While most teens and their parents recognize cigarettes as harmful — due largely to an aggressive national campaign — “just about nobody thinks alcohol is harmful,” said Dr. Swindell, adding that on health risks from marijuana, “as the kids become older,” fewer think it poses any health risks.
He said because of this perception, many teens do not believe their parents object strongly to their drinking, and the notion of a sort of “rite of passage” needs to be broken among youth and adults alike.
But alcohol, like many other substances, has significant health risks, he said.
“Alcohol has a much broader effect on the brain than more sophisticated kinds of pharmaceutical substances,” said Dr. Swindell. “The message here is that alcohol is a drug and it does affect the brain.”
Members of the panel said the way teens drink, often binge drinking, can also compound the problem.
“Kids don’t drink the same way we do,” said Gene Feher, a member of the task force and an EMT with the Wilton Volunteer Ambulance Corps. “They drink to get drunk. There’s no such thing as ‘I’ll have a glass of wine with my friends behind the high school.’ It’s ‘I’ll have a bottle of vodka behind the high school.’”
The full results of both surveys may be downloaded online from the Positive Directions Web site: positivedirections.org
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