DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE AMONG TEENS IN MINNESOTA

Minnesota Teen Drug and Alcohol Abuse Facts

Teen Drug and Alcohol Abuse in Minnesota is on the Upswing

An article about teen drug abuse in Minnesota cited the recent national study showing the alcohol use in high school students had risen 11 percent and the use of Ecstasy had grown 67 percent and marijuana use in that group had risen 19 percent.
Sobering statistics when you look at all the attention and money that drug abuse has gotten in recent years!

Scott County Director of Public Health Jennifer Deschaine said in the same article that the problem of alcohol and marijuana use was not any better in Minnesota either.
She went on to add that Scott County is one of the highest-ranked counties in the metro area for adolescent drinking.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, implemented in the district's Prior Lake schools (fifth-grade classrooms) educates students on cigarettes, alcohol and household inhalants, but the efforts are still primarily focused on cigarettes.

In District 719's elementary schools in Savage, Project ALERT, headed by Janine Alcorn, the district's chemical health facilitator educates students on tobacco, alcohol and marijuana, known as "gateway drugs".

Alcorn believes another fact complicating the problem in drug and alcohol abuse before the age of 15, is the accepting attitude toward the risky behaviors and the increase in the possibility of addiction in these kids.

Risk behaviors can include lying to parents, being disobedient, academic dishonesty and
sexual behavior in adolescents with negative outcomes such as sexually transmitted diseases.

The rise in Scott County's Chlamydia and teen pregnancy rates is believed to be related to increase in substance abuse as well.

Amie Spinner, a chemical health counselor at Twin Oaks Middle School in Prior Lake recommends setting the boundaries now when your kids are still at the young age, because as they get older it gets a lot harder.

The reason as to why, after decades of decline, teen drug use is picking up is suggested to be media images, stress, peer pressure among other factors. But all agree that prevention is the key.

Important tools of prevention are communication and education for parents.


Source: Prior Lake American  

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