NEWSLETTER

February 1996

The Weekly Reader 1995 National Survey on Drugs, Alcohol, and Tobacco

This survey was conducted in mid to late March 1995. All respondents in a Weekly ReaderNational Survey are students in grades 2 through 6 whose teachers subscribe to a Weekly Reader periodical and who decide to conduct the survey in their classes. The following is an excerpt from the Weekly Reader report on the 1995 survey results.

Key Findings

• Significant percentages of students in grades 4 through 6 do not think that drinking wine coolers (21%) orsniffing glue (17%) can be dangerous to their health. More than 20% of students in grades 2 and 3 do notconsider wine, wine coolers, or beer to be drugs.
• Students in grades 4 through 6 are nearly unanimous in recognizing the dangers of smoking marijuana. Yet in the last five years there has been an alarming increase in peer pressure among them to try the drug. Peer pressure, in general, is a significant determinant today in whether middle-grade students try drugs, and 89% of those students feel it is very important for schools to help them learn how to deal with such pressure. Only 69% said that their schools are doing very well in this area of instruction.
• Nearly 50% of the students in grades 4 through 6 said that there is some or a lot of peer pressure for kids their age to try sniffing glue, a behavior, along with sniffing inhalants for a high, that experts say is a growing national problem and health menace. Almost 20% of those students believe that sniffing glue can cause only pleasant "high" feelings, and fully 15% said that no harm can come from the behavior. Among second and third graders, 25% of the students said that sniffing glue causes only pleasant "high" feelings, and 30% of them said that no harm can come from the behavior.
• 71% of 2nd and 3rd grade students said that smoking can cause great harm to their health, but only 59% of 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students responded similarly.
• The perception among middle graders appears to be that there have been substantial, significant, and disturbing increases in the number of their peers who have tried drugs and alcohol over the past five years. Survey data suggest that peer pressure, negative adult (or older youth) role models, and TV programming are contributing factors.
• Only about 33% of the students across grades 2 through 6 know that light beers are NOT lower in alcohol content than regular beers. Further, only about 20% of those students know that alcoholic-beverage containers carry health and safety warnings.
• More than 60% of students in grades 4 through 6 make the connection between the use of illegal drugs and high crime rate in the United States. At the same time, 27% of them believe that marijuana should be legalized. Further, though 71% of students agreed that smoking cigarettes is a gateway to trying marijuana, 12% disagreed and 17% had no opinion.
• Nearly 70% of students in grades 4,5,and 6 agreed that some tobacco and beer advertisements make smoking and drinking look like cool things to do, and almost half of those students said that they talk with others about the advertisements.

Teenage Drug Use Increase

U.S. teenagers used more illegal drugs and smoked more cigarettes in 1995 than in 1994 About 48.4% of all high school seniors had used an illicit drug at least once in their lifetime. These findings are part of the new national survey of 13, 15, and 17 year-old students conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

Other findings published in the 21st annual Monitoring the Future Survey include:

• the proportion of 13 year olds taking any illicit drug in the past year almost doubled since 1991, from 11% to 21%.
• among 15 year olds, the proportion using any illicit drug use has increased by nearly two-thirds, from 20% to 33%,and among 17-year olds increased by nearly half, from 27% to 39%.
• marijuana use increased by more than 3 percentage points for all three age groups, with more than 1/3 of high school seniors - 34.7% - using marijuana in the last year.
• LSD use among 15 and 17 year olds increased significantly; inhalant use remained high, especially among younger teenagers: 21.6% of 15 year olds reported using inhalants at least once.
• more than 33% of the 17 year olds said they smoked cigarettes, a 2% increase over 1994 figures, and 21.6% of them smoked daily
• rates for alcohol use remained level from 1994 to 1995, with daily drinking among 17 year olds rising from 2.9% to 3.5%, but falling among 15 year olds from 1.0% to 0.7%(source: The Alcoholism Report, January 1996.)

"GET HIGH, GET STUPID, GET AIDS"

Complacency Does Not 'Compute'

Research continues to show that alcohol and other drugs negatively affect good judgement regarding sexual behavior, often putting young people at risk for AIDS. NIDA reports that the "extent of drug and alcohol use by those in their teens and young adulthood, and the "partying lifestyle" play a key role in situations in which young people engage in sex when they don't want to, practice unprotected sex when they do, and find themselves regretting their decisions, sometimes too late."

Nearly 33 1/3% of high school seniors and over 25% of young adults used illicit drugs in the past year. About one in five people with AIDS were diagnosed between the ages of 20-29. Half of all new HIV infections occur in people age 25 or younger. The spread of HIV is rising dramatically among teenagers - the number of diagnosed teenagers increased 96% over the past two years.

In the U.S., 1 in every 250 persons is infected with AIDS, the rate of those diagnosed with AIDS is rising faster among heterosexuals, minorities and women than homosexuals. In 1993, states reporting the largest number of heterosexual acquired AIDS cases were Florida, New York and New Jersey. New Jersey is #1 with female AIDS cases and #2 with pediatric AIDS cases.(sources: National Institute on Drug Abuse, World Health Organization, Hackensack University Medical Center date.)

COLLEGE STUDENTS AND ALCOHOL - STILL A RISKY COMBINATION

• nearly 50% of all college students who have been the victim of a crime had been drinking before the crime occurred.
• college students consume more beer than soft drinks; studies have shown that the more they drink, the lower their grade point average.
• typical American college students spend more on beer than they do on textbooks, although the majority of them cannot drink legally.

(source:  NCADD - 1996 Alcohol Awareness Month Guide)

PUBLIC POLICY REPORT

New Jersey: Tobacco no-sales-to-minors legislation passed.

On 12/21/95 the Legislature approved S-1186A - 2892 which makes it illegal for stores and other retailers to sell cigarettes and/or tobacco products to persons under 18 years old. Governor Whitma signed the measure into law on 1/5/96. Fees for tobacco-vending licenses will increase from $5.00 to $50.00 and will provide the funding for local health boards to conduct age-of-sale compliance checks at tobacco retail and vending machine outlets. Bergen County Assemblyman David C. Russo (R-40) sponsored the Assembly bill (A-2892). Middlesex County Senator Jack Sinagra (R-18) sponsored the Senate bill (S-1186).

Washington, D.C.: Congressional Drug Policy Task Force

Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R-KS) and House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) have established a new task force (comprised of 14 Republicans) to heighten public awareness and develop an anti-drug action plan. One of the task force goals is to focus on the recent increase/upward trend in drug use by junior high and senior high school students.

Federal Government Releases New Dietary Guidelines

The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture have released their 1995 Dietary Guidelines. As in past years, the Guidelines advise those who choose to drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation, and define moderate drinking as one standard drink per day for women and two standard drinks per day for men. Those who are advised not to drink at all are: persons under age 21; women who are trying to conceive or who are pregnant; persons who plan to drive; persons using prescription or over the counter medications; persons who cannot restrict their drinking to moderate levels.