Truth told about teen drug use

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Think it’s pretty tough for area teens to find illegal drugs?

Think again.

More than 90 percent of Bureau County sixth-graders think it would be very hard to get marijuana, a number that drops to 79 percent of area eighth-graders. That number plummets in high school, with 31 percent of 10th-graders and 19 percent of the county’s 12th-graders saying marijuana would be hard to find. Almost one-third, or 29 percent of high school seniors say marijuana is “very easy” to find.

Older students also think it’s easier to find the harder drugs. Almost 90 percent of the county’s 10th-graders say it would be very hard to get cocaine, LSD or amphetamines, a number that drops to only half of the 10th-graders, and a little more than one-third of the county’s high school seniors. More than one-quarter of the area’s 12th-graders said that it would be “sort of” or “very” easy to get cocaine, LSD or amphetamines.

Those statistics are part of the mind-numbing Illinois Youth Survey report for 2008. Every two years the Illinois Department of Human Services conducts a survey of school-aged children in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 on their attitudes and behaviors regarding alcohol, tobacco, other drug use, violence, exercise and nutrition. This spring, more than 600 students in seven Bureau County schools joined with students in more than 1,000 Illinois schools to participate in the survey.

Teens who buy drugs are teens who use drugs, and 7 percent of the county’s eighth-graders claim to have smoked marijuana, as do 22 percent of the 10th-graders and 39 percent of the 12th-graders.

Most of the teens using marijuana said it happened once or twice in the past month, but that number jumps among the 12th-graders. Among the seniors, 22 percent said they had smoked marijuana in the past month, and 17 percent said it happened at least three times. Seven percent of the 12th-graders said they smoked marijuana on 20 or more occasions in the past month.

In addition, 5 percent of the 10th-graders have used inhalants, and 1 percent claim to be using methamphetamine. Nine percent of the county’s 12th-graders say they have used inhalants, and 2 percent claim to be using methamphetamine.

Turning to the harder drugs, 1 percent of the eighth-graders said they had used LSD and/or cocaine/crack in the past year. That number inched up to 2 percent of the 10th-graders and 4 percent of the 12th-graders. Two percent of the 10th-graders and 4 percent of the 12th-graders also said they had used “ecstasy” in the previous year.

Only 1 percent of the 10th-graders and 12th-graders said they used heroin in the previous year. Disturbingly, the users in both age groups claimed to have used heroin on between 10 and 19 occasions.

Teens who use drugs also occasionally drive while under the influence. Almost 10 percent of the county’s 10th-graders said they had driven while using marijuana or other illegal drugs. Among older students, that number had doubled, with 20 percent of the 12th-graders saying they driven while using marijuana or other illegal drugs, and nine percent said it had happened six or more times.

Drug and alcohol use doesn’t just affect the person who drinks or takes the drugs. One out of every four sixth-graders said they had ridden in a car driven by an adult who had been drinking or using drugs in the past year, and one out of 10 said it had happened at least six times. More than 30 percent of the eighth-graders also said they had ridden in a car driven by an adult who had been drinking or using drugs.

Those numbers decrease once students hit high school, but that’s because likely because older teens don’t ride with adults as often.

When it comes to riding with other teenagers, 20 percent of the 10th-graders said they had ridden in a car driven by a teen who had been drinking or using drugs in the past year, and that number skyrockets to 38 percent of the county’s 12th-graders. In addition, 15 percent of the county’s high school seniors said they rode with a teen who was drinking or using drugs six or more times in the past year.

Alcohol and drugs weren’t the only topic area teens were asked about. Read Saturday’s BCR for more results from the Illinois Youth Survey.

This is the second in a multi-part series.

Comment on this story at www.bcrnews.com.