TEENS' ALCOHOL, DRUG USE STARTS AT EARLIER AGE

In a new study that may open more than a few parents' eyes, Statistics
Canada found children are experimenting with alcohol and drugs as young as
12 years old.

Almost half of the 15-year-olds polled reported they had been drunk at
least once and more than a third admitted to having smoked marijuana, the
federal agency found.

More than 40 per cent of 12- to 15-year-olds overall had reported having at
least one alcoholic drink and one-fifth had used marijuana.

The report is based on data for 4,296 teens ages 12 to 15 from the ongoing
national longitudinal survey of children and youth that began 10 years ago
and looks at various aspects of youths' lives. The 1998-99 cycle of the
survey is the most recent and was the first to look at alcohol and drug use
in young teens.

"It's a wakeup call because the ages of users are getting younger," said
family drug counsellor David Huntington at Odyssey, a drug-education
program at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Vancouver. "It used to be
16-year-olds we were seeing and now it's as young as 11."

He said adolescence is an "incredibly important" time for people to grow
and with more children drinking and using and at early ages, "we have a lot
of immature adults out there and that affects our culture, our economies,
our communities. These people aren't growing up and we're going to pay for
that later."

The study found that, even more than parental drinking, the factor playing
the biggest role in children's alcohol and drug use, is whether or not
their friends drink or use.

"Peer influence is a lot stronger than it used to be," Huntington said.
"Parental influence is dropping off and kids are getting their values from
their friends."

The study found that teens were no more likely to get drunk or use drugs
"in families where drinking was a source of tension" than teens who came
from families without alcoholism.

But it found the odds of using drugs were nearly double for adolescents in
step-parent families compared with those in other families.

Kids who went to church regularly were less likely to drink but not less
likely to use drugs -- a finding the authors could not explain.

Similarly, teens who did well in school were less likely to drink to the
point of intoxication, but were not less likely to use drugs.