By Harlan Levy
Journal Inquirer
Published: Saturday, January 15, 2011 2:08 AM EST
WINDSOR LOCKS – In an eye-opening report released Thursday, the Board of Education found out that out of 715 high schoolers and middle schoolers anonymously surveyed last June, marijuana was smoked at least once within the prior month by 25 percent of the high schoolers and 5.3 percent of the middle schoolers.
Also the survey of 387 out of the 552 students in high school, or 70 percent, and 328 of the 422 in middle school, or 76 percent, showed:
• 6 percent of the middle schoolers and 32 percent of the high schoolers drank alcohol in the month prior to the June survey.
• 2.7 percent of middle schoolers and 25.3 percent of high schoolers binge-drank, or consumed four or more drinks in a short period, in the past month.
• 8.1 percent of the high schoolers and 2.5 percent of the middle schoolers abused prescription drugs, such as Oxycontin, valium, and Adderall, in the past month.
• 3.7 percent of the high schoolers and 1.3 percent of the middle schoolers used prescription drugs six or more days in the past month.
• 6 percent of the middle schoolers and 29 percent of the high schoolers used tobacco in the past month.
Alcohol is the No. 1 substance of choice for Windsor Locks youth, said the report, authored by Bonnie Smith, executive director of East of the River Action for Substance Abuse Elimination, which also administered the survey.
“It’s not much different from other communities,” said Sandra Jones a director of New Directions Inc., an Enfield nonprofit substance abuse treatment agency, which received a $5,000 state grant to fund the survey and report and develop strategies to deal with the student abuse problem.
“What people do not recognize is the hazards of drinking underage. If you start drinking before the age of 18, you have a much higher chance of become dependent or an alcoholic. There are car crashes, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS, date rapes, losing your judgment,” she said.
Second-most popular in Windsor Locks are prescription drugs. That’s a gateway to heroin, said Jones, a former Granby police officer.
“The majority of people between the age of 18 and 25 who are coming in addicted to heroin all started on narcotic painkillers. The average age of onset is 14, 15, and they get them from parents,” she continued.
Abuse of painkillers is a gateway to heroin, Jones explained, “because heroin right now is much cheaper. You can get $80 worth of Percocet on the street or an equivalent of heroin for five bucks, so you get many IV users who are middle class.”
The survey broke down marijuana and alcohol use in the month before the survey by grade.
Alcohol was used by 9.5 percent of seventh-graders, 9 percent of eighth-graders, 16 percent of ninth-graders, 31 percent of 10th graders, 39 percent of 11th graders, and 48 percent of 12th graders.
Binge drinkers totaled 4 percent in the seventh and eighth grades, 14 percent in the ninth grade, 26 percent in 10th grade, 25 percent in 11th grade, and 38.5 percent in 12th grade.
On driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs in the prior month: 4.2 percent of 11th- and 12th-graders drove under the influence of alcohol and 9.4 percent while drugged.
Marijuana was smoked by 9.6 percent of seventh-graders, 7 percent of eighth-graders, 15 percent of ninth-graders, 24 percent of 10th-graders, 29 percent of 11th-graders, and 35 percent of 12th-graders.
The survey also showed that of the 715 students surveyed, the average age they started to drink was 12.4 years old. Also, the high school students reported that one of the primary sources for alcohol is from parents, either knowingly or unknowingly, and access to alcohol is readily available to underage drinkers.
Smith emphasized to the board the results of a middle and high school parent/guardian survey conducted this fall showing a marked difference in parent perceptions of when youth start using alcohol, how much they drink, and the primary sources of alcohol for the town’s underage youth:
Nearly half of the responding parents, or 49.4 percent, underestimated the percentage of Windsor Locks youths who drank during the past month. Some 66 percent of the responding parents overestimated the age at which children begin drinking.
Parents believe that friends and siblings over the age of 21 are the most common source of alcohol for underage drinkers. The students said the most common source is from parents with or without permission.
“What is striking is that almost 40 percent of students report getting their alcohol from their parents — with permission,” Smith said.
Action is necessary, said Kate Barnard, director of the town’s Youth Services Bureau.
She said her agency and New Directions already have begun to implement “environmental” strategies to reduce underage drinking in the Windsor Locks middle and high school population by the spring of 2014. The focus is on two areas: social access and enforcement of underage drinking laws.
One major tactic, Barnard said, is aggressive marketing and dissemination of information, or “social marketing, about state laws and legal penalties for young people and adults and ways parents can best prevent their children’s use of alcohol and/or prescription drug misuse. The information will be distributed at sports and other community events.
Increasing enforcement is a second effort — lobbying retailers to refuse underage sales and ramped up police arrests for liquor drug law violations.
