Posted on 08/01/2006 4:40:58 PM PDT by Know your rights
The use of injected drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine and steroids is at an all-time high for high school seniors statewide, according to a survey released Monday by the Indiana Prevention Resource Center.
The number of students injecting drugs has increased from 1.8 percent in 2001 to 2.2 percent in 2006.
Statistics for the northeast part of Indiana, which includes Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Huntington, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wells and Whitley counties, mirrored the statewide average.
“I was surprised by the injected drug use that was elevated by 12th-graders,” said Ruth Gassman, executive director of the center.
Rich Beck, chief of the Allen County Sheriff Department’s Reserve, said the statistics on injected drug use seem accurate for the area, based on the number of heroin-related arrests the department has made in the past year.
The Indiana Prevention Resource Center at Indiana University sent surveys across the state to 383 public and private schools that volunteered to administer the annual survey to 131,017 students. Fifteen schools in northeast Indiana participated and 6,979 students took the survey, Gassman said.
The schools chose which students to survey, Gassman said. The purpose of the survey was to measure alcohol, tobacco and other drug use on a statewide and local basis for planning and evaluation of prevention programs. The survey did not include individual county statistics, and Gassman would not release the names of the schools that participated.
Among 12th-graders, the study showed an increase in binge drinking, which Beck said is also the case in Allen County. The sheriff’s department is trying to combat underage drinkingwith the Sheriff’s Teenage Alcohol Reduction Team, or START.
A couple of years ago, when the sheriff’s office would respond to a loud party, teenagers would see police officers at the door and run out the back and climb out the windows, eventually getting into their cars while intoxicated, Beck said. Now, four officers are sent to the house to surround the area, arrest youths and prevent them from driving drunk, he said.
One of the positive findings in the study included a decrease in marijuana use statewide. Except for 12th-graders, the percentage of students who reported using marijuana in northeast Indiana was lower than the state average in every grade.
“I think we can attribute that to our primary prevention efforts in the schools and in the communities,” Gassman said.
The reported use of Ecstasy among 11th- and 12th-graders statewide increased, and 12th-graders were also more likely to report having used heroin and psychedelics during the past month and to have used Rohypnol during the past year. Much of the concern surrounding Rohypnol is its abuse as a date-rape drug. Reported use of inhalants and cocaine decreased among sixth- and eighth-graders statewide.
Students were also asked in the survey about the consequences they experienced as a result of using alcohol or drugs. More than one in 10 students in grades eight through 12 reported having missed school as a consequence of drug use and an even greater percentage of students in grades seven through 12 reported having performed poorly on a test or project as a result of drug use.
More than one in five high school students reported riding in a car with someone who had been drinking alcohol. About 16 percent of juniors and 20 percent of seniors reported driving a car while drunk.
The study found that students involved in activities such as playing on a sports team, participating in arts, music or drama programs, supervised activities at youth center or after school classes were less likely to use cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana.
Schools will receive their individual results at the end of the month and are at liberty to decide whether to release them publicly, Gassman said.
Way to set your priorities. All hail the War On Weed!
An expensive and unconstitutional one, at that.
If you keep bumping this thread, the WOD cheerleaders are going to show up and call us mean names.
Correlation is not causation. If it were, the ultimate gateways would be water and oxygen.
Still lying about me, I see.
There is not only a focus on pot, they are after it all.
Then how did they let injectable drugs increase while pot decreased?
It is just that pot is the most frequently abused more than likely, and as you know is a gateway drug.
As you know, the "gateway drug" theory is bunk.
What makes you think law enforcement lets ANYTHING regarding drugs just happen?
What if the trends just change from month to month and law enforcement has to adjust?
Murder goes up and down and law enforcement adjusts what they do there as well.
Like claiming we have a "sacrament of weed"? The WODdies are truly without shame.
So you disagree with the law enforcement officer who took credit for the decline in pot?
Pot often leads to experimentation and the mixing of it with everything from alcohol to hard drugs.
Any acceptance of it in our culture will only spread addiction.
Best to shun it and users.
Users should be smart and not use it in public.
Over a half decade you can see a trend of whether law enforcement is in the right direction.
If the trend is going well, sure they can take some credit for figuring out a decent strategy, but I think they have to constantly stay on top of it or it could easily be on the rise again.
It reminds me a lot of dealing with terrorism.
You've got it backward ... alcohol use comes first, which is why those who believe in "gateway drugs" cite alcohol as one.
And pot doesn't "often" lead to anything; most of those who use pot do not go on to use harder drugs.
Any acceptance of it in our culture will only spread addiction.
Then why don't you support a complete ban on all use of the addictive drugs alcohol as you do for marijuana?
No, unless they are dying and need it for relieving their pain from an illness like cancer.
If you want to help the situation you can start by getting over the idea that alcohol and drugs are two different things.
You never have to be drunk or harmed by alcohol. It also goes through the stomach which is one of the slowest accesses to inside the body.
Abuse of alcohol is what is wrong and has legal issues.
The problem is kid hear getting drunk and doing pot is cool and it gets glorified among small, immature minds.
I think it mostly takes corrupting a minor to make a good drunk or drug addict.
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