Molly Mutschler's List: School, Drugs, and Sex in Adolescence

• • Teachers can record behaviors that they notice and talk to school counselors or the school nurse about what they see. 

• school factors, including inequitable scheduling, grading, and discipline policies, may also contribute to a student's feeling of disconnection.
• In its extreme, feeling alienated from the school environment can contribute to violence and suicidal ideation
• • "Students reach the point of non-completion after years of feeling less familiar, less considered, less teachable, and less likeable."  This quote means to me that there are many opportunities for teachers to reach out to those students before the extremes are reached.
• Each participant developed insecurity and distrust of school as a result of unanticipated transfers from one school to another. …Participants' belief in their ability to manage the transitions was damaged each time a transition was required.
• Participants described their inability to progress academically as the first factor in cultivating a defeatist attitude toward school. Each participant could identify a particular point in time when he knew he would not be able to earn a high school diploma.
• Students reach the point of non-completion after years of feeling less familiar, less considered, less teachable, and less likeable.
• When teachers and other school adults took a personal interest in [participants], helping them to feel included and valued, they were more willing to attend class and do their homework.

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• We have an adolescent suicide problem, and it’s pronounced with adolescent males, who complete suicide at four times the rate of adolescent females
• the incidence rates of syphilis among males age 15-24 is from twice to five times that of females
• Yet, once most young males leave their pediatrician’s office for the last time they do not return to a health care provider for regular visits until their mid-thirties, if then.
• They acquire STIs that, if left undiagnosed and/or untreated, can spread to their sexual partners and have severe long term consequences for their own overall health.
• They are half the equation in unintended and unwanted pregnancies.
• They suffer from depression that goes unnoticed by our educational and health care systems, leading at times to substance abuse and those suicide rates that are higher than females.

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• • The impact of alcohol consumption upon risky sexual
    behavior was found to operate through a “continuum of influence.” The 5 effects or explanations
    within this continuum, possibly determined through the level of inebriation, are summarized as
    follows: (1) alcohol affecting young people’s assessment of a person’s sexual attractiveness; (2)
    alcohol used as an “excuse” for socially unacceptable behavior; (3) increased confidence and lowering
    of inhibitions; (4) impaired judgment in accurately recognizing and controlling a potentially risky
    situation; and (5) complete loss of control, memory loss, and “black-out.”

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  • • Risky sex = "sexual intercourse without the use of contraception or any sexual behavior that was subsequently regretted."

• 36% of 12th graders reporting lifetime marijuana use
• children in middle school are reporting increasingly high usage of marijuana, with 14.5% of 8th graders reporting lifetime use in 2006.

• There is a clear correlation between drug use and declining academic performance.

   
• America represents four percent of the worlds population, yet it consumes two-thirds of the world's illegal drugs.
• Results of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University’s (CASA) twelfth annual National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse are, in CASA’s word “unprecedented,” revealing “. . . that the corridors and classrooms of our nation’s middle and high schools are so infested with drugs that for many students school days have become school daze. Parents should wake up to the reality that their children are going each day to schools where drug use, possession and sale are as much a part of the curriculum as arithmetic and English.”—Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Chairman and President
  
• You must challenge the local and national media when it is supportive of a pro-drug/pro-legalization messages.
• Do not let pro-drug advocates such as the ACLU, the Drug Policy Alliance, the Marijuana Policy Project, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws et. al. tell your communities and schools what is best for your children or dictate what school prevention programs will be implemented.
• The foundation for later substance use is set for most people by the time they finish high school
• substance use was surprisingly prevalent at the start of mid-life and that there was a high level of stability of substance use over the 18-year time period by those who had used drugs or drank heavily by their senior year in high school.
• Those using marijuana by their senior year were 8 times more likely to use it at age 35 than those who had not tried it by the 12th grade.
• Those using any illicit drug other than marijuana by their senior year were 5 times more likely to use cocaine and 3 times more likely to misuse prescription drugs at age 35 compared to students who had not used any illicit drug by their senior year.
• Those who drank heavily were 3 times more likely to drink heavily at 35 years of age compared to those who did not drink heavily as high school seniors.
• those who first used marijuana
    before age 12 were twice as likely to have serious mental illness
    in the past year as those who first used marijuana at age 18
    or older
• Recent research points to an association between
    early marijuana use and a heightened risk of developing
    schizophrenia or other psychological disorders.
• illicit  drugs may be more prevalent than alcohol in teenage impaired driving.
• nearly 14 percent of 12th grade students say they use illicit drugs in cars—more than say they use  alcohol in cars.
• Data summary on 12th grade student drug use while in cars:
   –10.1 percent used alcohol
   –12.9 percent used marijuana
   –13.6 percent used any illicit drug

• The Inextricable Link: The  Relationship Between Alcohol, Drug Use and Violence Among Students and may  be found at:  http://cadca.org/CoalitionResources/PP-documents/TheInextricableLink.pdf
• Of students reporting an A  or B average:
   
   -72.2% were students who did not use marijuana in the past month as  compared with 58% of those who used marijuana on 1 to 4 days in the past month  and 44.9% of those who used marijuana on 5 or more days during the past month.
   -72.5% were students who did not use alcohol during the past month as  compared with 67.1% of those who used (but did not binge on) alcohol in the past  month and 57.7% of those who engaged in past month binge alcohol use.
• 38% of students who rarely make good grades were also monthly marijuana users
• Only 7% of students claiming monthly marijuana use frequently made good grades
• 49% of students who used alcohol monthly had poor grade performance
• Only 18% of students claiming monthly alcohol use were academic achievers
• Students with low academic performance also were shown to disproportionately represent those students reporting truancy, discipline problems, gang membership and bullying

• Sixth-graders reporting use                    Parents   saying sixth-grader uses         

   

  21%  reported alcohol use                       5% said there was   alcohol use

   

  8.3% reported drug use                            0.9% said there was drug   use

• Twelfth-graders reporting use                  Parents saying   twelfth-grader uses       

   

  68% report alcohol use                            41% said there was   alcohol use   

   

      36% report drug use                                15% said there was drug   use

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• What are your thoughts on the rap industry's references to drug use, specifically snoop dogg's lyrics "hey hey hey. Smoke weed every day."
• Some people argue that songs and other forms of entertainment only reflect behaviors that are already present in society, while others suggest that the media can influence how people think and behave.

• I think that when a school teaches students about drugs, some students like me, who are not aware of those drugs, learn a lot more about what's out there. So, why are they teaching students all about drugs?
   While trying drugs and alcohol might not have occurred to you until seeing all these messages from authority figures in school, many kids do get exposed to drugs and drug opportunities outside of the classroom, including on the internet. School systems know this, and figure that they had better equip you with knowledge about the risks of trying drugs and alcohol--to counter some of the misinformation that you might pick up elsewhere. However, your point is very important, and this is why we try hard to make our messages "age-appropriate" so as to maximize the usefulness of the information while minimizing the likelihood of its misuse.

     
• 5.2% of seniors reported non-medical use of the opiate pain reliever OxyContin within the past year.
• the pain reliever Vicodin was abused by nearly one in ten 12th graders, second only to marijuana.
• In 2007, nearly 6% of 12th graders reported abusing over-the-counter cough and cold medicines at least once in the past year to get high.
• the most commonly abused substance among teens is alcohol, followed by tobacco.
• In 2006, 16.6% of 12 to 17 year olds had abused alcohol, 10.4% had abused cigarettes, and 6.8% had abused marijuana in the month prior to the survey.
• The most commonly abused illegal drug is marijuana.
• in 2006, 8.0% of youth in the United States (that's more than 2 million) between the ages of 12 and 17 met diagnostic criteria for abuse or dependence (addiction) on illicit drugs or alcohol.
• only 181,000 youths received treatment at a specialty facility--about 8.7 percent of youths who needed treatment.

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• About 17 percent of American high school students are drinking, smoking or using drugs during the school day
• 44 percent of students told survey-takers they know a classmate who sells drugs
• Marijuana was the easiest drug to come by, followed by prescription drugs, cocaine and ecstasy.
• digital peer pressure appears to have played a significant role in getting teens started on drugs and booze — something that was not the case before the era of social networking sites. Seventy-five percent of respondents said that seeing Facebook pictures of their peers partying with alcohol and marijuana encourages other teens to imitate them.
• Survey-takers also asked participants if they are ever left home alone overnight without adult supervision. Nearly 30 percent answered in the affirmative, and are about twice as likely to have used alcohol or marijuana and almost three times more likely to have tried tobacco than teens who have never been left alone at night.

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• It may surprise some parents to learn that the first time most children encounter drugs is when they make the transition from elementary to middle school. 
• 40 percent of 8th graders have tried alcohol and 20 percent report using an illegal drug
• Abusing prescription medication is also becoming prevalent among middle schoolers.
• Alcohol, marijuana, inhalants, and cough medicine are the most commonly abused substances.
• They have been deceived into thinking that because something is described as “safe” and “legal,” it is not truly dangerous.
• They need to understand that if you are using any kind of substance to alter your mood or mental state, you are placing yourself in jeopardy.
• children want to fit in, and not just be accepted, but genuinely liked. It takes a tremendous amount of self-confidence not to drink or smoke marijuana when it seems like everyone else is doing it.
• There are two things parents must accept as their children enter adolescence: life when you were 13 is very different from your children’s lives at 13 and our children make mistakes.
• Do not assume you have all the answers or know exactly what it is like to be in middle school.
• There is a small window between experimentation and addiction.
• anyone has the potential to become an addict and bad decisions are different than bad people

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• It used to be that kids understood that doing drugs would jeopardize their future, but that's no longer the case.
• "More teens don't feel any fear about trying drugs,''

• Schools need to educate staff about substance abuse, she said, and schools, parents, and police need to work together to combat drug and alcohol abuse.

   

  Carolan also thinks schools and parents need to be tougher about setting boundaries and then following through on consequences as soon as teenagers get into substance abuse, instead of calling it a "rite of passage.''

   
• Before social networking, kids had to be at the party to be part of the scene.

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• 62 percent of high school students and 28 percent of middle school students attend drug infected schools
• 10.6 million high schoolers and 2.4 million middle schoolers are likely returning to schools where they will find drugs are used, kept and sold
• teen perceptions of immorality, parental disapproval and harm to health are far more powerful deterrents to teen smoking, drinking and drug use than legal restrictions
• Teens who say their parents would be “a little upset” or “not upset at all” if they used marijuana are six times likelier to try marijuana than those whose parents would be “extremely upset.”
• 43 percent of 12 to 17 year olds see three or more R-rated movies each month either in theaters or on home video.  These teens are seven times likelier to smoke cigarettes, six times likelier to try marijuana and five times likelier to drink alcohol, compared to those who watch no R-rated movies in a typical month.
• Nearly half of smaller high schools (fewer than 1,000 students) are reported to be drug free, compared to less than a third of larger high schools (1,000 or more students).
• Nearly three-quarters of smaller middle schools are reported to be drug free, compared to about half of larger middle schools.
• Forty-two percent of 12 to 17 year olds (11 million) can buy marijuana within a day, and 21 percent (5.5 million) can buy it in an hour or less.
• Teens who attend religious services weekly are at half the risk of substance abuse as those who do not attend such services.

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