Editor’s note: this is the final story in a three part series on teen drug and alcohol use in Maple Valley.
Adults who are watching the trends of teen drug and alcohol use are alarmed.
According to the 2008 Healthy Youth Survey results, nearly two-thirds of students in Washington state who are high school seniors had tried alcohol by the time they were in 10th grade.
More than 7,000 of the state’s seniors, who were sophomores at the time, participated in the survey. At the time there were 11,732 students in 10th grade.
Data is not yet available on students who participated last year. The survey is given every two years.
Nearly 20 percent of those students surveyed in 2008 had smoked marijuana, known by its modern nickname among teens as weed, in the 30 days prior to taking the survey.
Monica Robbins, a prevention and intervention specialist who works with the Tahoma School District, said the numbers in the 2010 survey have gone up in usage of alcohol and weed. Those numbers were not available to the Reporter before press time, but Robbins said what she had seen was worrisome.
More than 40 percent of this year’s seniors in the state when taking the survey, Robbins noted, said they had used alcohol in the past 30 days and more than 25 percent had used weed.
Those statistics further underscore the importance of prevention in the community, which Robbins described as a broad collaborative effort between the school district, the Greater Maple Valley Community Center, Communities That Care, parents and law enforcement agencies.
TEEN ADDICTION
In order to offer effective prevention programs it is important to understand why teens become addicted and what risk factors exist that make youths more likely to become addicts.
Robbins explained genetics, peer pressure and psychological motivation are the highest risk factors for a teenager experimenting with drugs or alcohol.
“The University of Washington did a fascinating study on fathers and sons and found a higher incidence of sons with fathers who are addicted,” she said. “We already know if there’s addiction in the family, the kids are going to be at higher risk. If it’s being used in the house, the kids are more likely to use.”
When a kid has a friend that is using, Robbins said, then they’re more likely to use, as well. Students who spoke to the Reporter in February confirmed that peer pressure is as powerful now, if not more so, as it was in the ‘80s when today’s parents were teens themselves.
Also contributing is the affluence of the community coupled with the lack of activities for kids who aren’t involved in sports or other activities.
Lynn Roberts, executive director of the Greater Maple Valley Community Center, described this phenomenon as “affluenza.”
“Kids are alone a lot, they have money and they have access,” Roberts said. “We live in a different world. Their parents did not have these problems and they think their kids wouldn’t do that. Our parents do a good job but I think a lot of them are naive about what their kids are facing.”
That peer pressure issue is something teens tell Robbins about often in individual sessions or groups.
“They’re so socially motivated to use,” she said. “The pressure is very different than when we were kids. The kids tell me all the time they feel like everybody is using.”
The third risk factor, psychological motivation, is when kids are trying to manage things such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depressions, post traumatic stress disorder or any other type of chemical imbalance, Robbins said.
Then once a kid starts using, the body goes through what Robbins described as an organic change, where the body adapts to having drugs or alcohol in the system and when that isn’t present they begin to go through withdrawal.
And teens become addicted more quickly, Robbins added.
“The teen brain is not fully developed,” she said. “The area of the brain that is not fully developed is responsible for moods and emotions. Under the age of 14 they have a much higher chance of becoming addicted if they use anything.”
Parents should look for some common signs their teen is using if they suspect anything such as a change in friends, lying to their parents, decline in grades, discipline problems at school, depression, sleep and appetite changes.
IMPORTANCE OF PREVENTION
That old cliche “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” is true, Roberts said.
In the early 1990s the community center was part of a pilot program that became the basis for Communities That Care.
Since 1995, the community center, the school district and the community, Roberts explained, have embraced the model.
In 2003 the coalition received a five-year grant from the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services agency that allowed for the hiring of a CTC staff member.
The grant required a community coalition that had representation from a number of segments of the community like the city, the schools, the community center, the health department, the chamber of commerce and the church community.
“The coalition met monthly and we identified the needs of our community,” Roberts said. “What we really did is we identified the needs or the risk factors then we worked to strengthen the protective factors to address those risk factors.”
That data from the Healthy Youth Survey has been an important tool that would help “the coalition determine where we needed to focus our work,” Roberts said.
Activities and programs were developed to educate, to provide alternatives to drug and alcohol use, to reward positive behavior among the youth, as well as a number of events with speakers that focused on the consequences of using.
And a few years ago, The Den opened up at the community center, giving a segment of youth culture in Maple Valley a place to go after school and on weekends.
“In our daily activities we see troubled kids,” Roberts said. “Every day after school we’re seeing kids with issues. Hopefully we’re helping them and keeping them away from what they could be involved with if The Den were not there.”
Erin Weaver, who is a member of the CTC as well as a mom and member of the Maple Valley City Council, said that Maple Valley is a wonderful community.
That, however, doesn’t mean it is any less susceptible to problems among its children with drug and alcohol.
“Everyone would agree prevention is far better, to stop a problem before it starts,” Weaver said. “People get lulled into a false sense of complacency and they think we don’t have the problems we had where we grew up. We don’t have a movie theater, we don’t have a bowling alley, we don’t have those activities. So, sometimes drugs start filling that void.”
Weaver pointed out that drugs don’t discriminate and addiction is not limited to one part of society.
“Drugs have no stratification or barrier, they are everywhere,” she said. “There’s so much pressure on our children. High expectations are good but I think the message here is that all parents of all students, you have to be aware, you have to be educated, you have to communicate with your children.”
Prevention is education, Robbins said, and she has found that in working with kids peer education is most effective.
At Tahoma High there is a group called the Prevention Squad which provides that kid to kid education.
For example, Prevention Squad will be going to Cedar River Middle School to teach seventh graders about the dangers of drug and alcohol use.
This group will also be meeting with all of the teams that are participating in spring sports to make sure their classmates are keenly aware of the district’s policies for athletes as well as the consequences if they choose to drink or do drugs and get caught.
“The importance of prevention is providing the students, the staff and the community with an understanding of drugs, addiction, the harm that can be and other topics that would support a healthy lifestyle,” Robbins said. “A good Student Assistance Program will have intervention and prevention.”
That Student Assistance Program, she noted, goes far beyond drugs and alcohol. It also does not focus exclusively on junior high or high school students. It tackles issues such as bullying, harassment and body image. These programs begin at the elementary level.
The key to helping kids live a healthy lifestyle is to help them learn how to cope, how to get through the day, Robbins noted.
WHAT IS BEING DONE
Robbins is collaborating with Detective Jason Stanley of the Maple Valley Police Department for an upcoming forum on marijuana slated for Thursday, March 31.
This is another example of the many programs offered by the school district in cooperation with CTC and the police department.
As part of her job, Robbins also offers counseling, referrals, classroom drug and alcohol presentations, runs counseling groups for students who have addiction in their families, who are in recovery as well as a girls empowerment group.
After homecoming, the Prevention Squad hosted about 60 kids for a movie night, providing it as an alternative to partying. There are plans to offer an after school movie event this spring, too, Robbins said.
She hopes to offer forums like the one planned next week on a quarterly basis. Robbins said the idea is to continue to reach out to adults in the community and bring them into the ongoing collaborative prevention effort.
This particular topic, she said, is particularly important.
“The reason I saw a need was an ongoing dialog with parents in the community and just the lack of information that’s out there about marijuana and what it’s really doing to our kids,” Robbins said. “It dawned on me that they just don’t have all the information. I want parents to know there continues to be the myth that marijuana is medical when it’s really dangerous. Weed is strong. It’s a gateway drug.”
The goal during the hour long event is to break down the myths that exist about weed and educate parents as well as school district staff members on the topic.
Robbins will be talking about the physiological effects of marijuana and what it does to a teenager’s brain while Stanley will be discussing the impact of weed’s use on the community.
For 17 years Robbins has worked as a prevention and intervention counselor.
What she sees in Maple Valley is valuable and she believes it gives kids here a better chance to avoid the pitfalls of drug and alcohol use.
“I love the collaboration between the school district, the community center and the parents in this community,” Robbins said. “Law enforcement is part of that, as well. The community center is such an important part of prevention. They do so much over there. I haven’t observed that (collaboration) in other communities I’ve worked in, the way that people will rally when something needs to be addressed.”
Weaver said community partnerships will continue to be key in addressing the issue.
“The reality is it takes a community,” she said. “We all have a vested interest in the future of our children.
Under the Influence: An ounce of prevention | Part Three
