When substance use turns to substance abuse in adults, it becomes a problem. But nicotine, liquor and drugs are always a serious risk for teens because of the vulnerability of the developing brain.
The good news on this front this fall: reported substance use among local teens is at an all-time low in the 16 years of surveying the middle and high school students of Franklin County and the North Quabbin.
The regional Communities That Care Coalition has been surveying high school and middle school teens from Athol to Buckland since 2003 and working hard to reduce the number who smoke or drink or use other drugs.
Their work has been paying off, apparently. Survey results among the region’s teens show a steady drop in risky behaviors over the years.
In 2018, the average number of risk factors students report is down to 7 on a scale of 20. The data shows that the more risk factors someone has, the more likely they are to participate in activities like binge drinking and drug use.
And, the survey shows, despite legalization of marijuana, pot use has not gone up significantly, although perception of whether it is harmful has decreased in recent years.
“The community is really excited to see these positive trends continue,” the coalition’s Kat Allen said recently. “We’re all trying to figure out how to help these trends continue and use these positive trends to motivate us to do more.”
Unfortunately, while cigarette smoking and other risky behaviors seem to be decreasing, vaping, or the use of so-called e-cigarettes, is growing.
Nearly 1-in-3 middle or high school students have tried vaping, a sharp increase in the past few years as the market has gotten its footing. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are trying to combat what the call an epidemic of vaping nicotine vapor the emerging in the youth culture.
“It’s ‘Big Tobacco’ finding a new area to market their product,” Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan observed when asked about the developing trend.
The consequences of ingesting nicotine through vaporization rather than smoking is still unclear, although government healths officials are convinced it presents as much a danger for teens as smoking.
In the absence of extensive research on the effects of vaping, adults and children should be cautious while more research is conducted.
Three times more students are reporting they have vaped in the past 30 days in 2018, than since the last set of released data in 2015 – jumping from 7 percent to 22 percent. The biggest leap came among 10th graders, with the data jumping from 5 to 29 percent. About 44 percent of high school seniors have said they have ever vaped in their lifetime.
Lower income students were slightly more likely to vape than higher income at 29 to 22 percent.
“We need to work a lot more with parents and get information out about the myths and realities about vaping and just what vaping looks like,” Allen said. “Make sure kids know that it’s risky and there are health risks associated with vaping.”
The coalition through its school programs and social service allies apparently has been successful at convincing teens that abusing drugs or smoking isn’t necessarily the cool thing that everyone’s doing — a key message of its surveys from the early years. And now it seems the coalition and the people at large in our communities will need to care enough to underscore that message.