SHELBY STUDENT DRUG USE DOWN

Middle School Alcohol, Drug Use Up, Survey Says

More middle school students in Shelby County used drugs and alcohol in
2002-2003 compared to the previous year, but drug and alcohol use
among all students declined, according to a survey released Monday by
the Shelby County Board of Education.

The results are from the Pride Survey, a national, anonymous survey
detailing drug and alcohol use among middle and high school students.
In all, 7,229 students in grades 6 through 11 responded.

County school officials hailed the results as a sign that drug
prevention measures such as random drug testing have proven effective,
as countywide overall drug and alcohol use is below the national
average. Other areas of the report underscore the need for an
intensified focus on early intervention, school officials said.

"It's mixed results," said Shelby County school board member Trey
Ireland. That overall student drug and alcohol use is below the
national average is encouraging, but "it's disheartening that there's
still this much drug and alcohol use in the county," Ireland said.

Middle school users:

Among sixth-, eighth- and ninth-graders, more students reported using
illicit drugs monthly. Sixth-, seventh- and ninth-graders reported
increased monthly alcohol use, according to the survey. Other grades
surveyed showed decreases in alcohol and drug use.

In 2002-2003, for example, 3.8 percent of sixth-graders said they used
alcohol monthly, compared to 3.4 percent the previous year. In seventh
grade, monthly alcohol use rose from 8.6 percent to 8.9 percent.
Sixth-grader marijuana use increased from 1.7 percent of students
reporting monthly use to 2.1 percent in 2002-2003; eighth-graders also
used more marijuana with 7.6 percent of students using compared to 6.4
percent the previous year.

More than one in four Shelby County high school students - 27.7
percent - reported drinking alcohol monthly; that figure is down from
37 percent in 2001-2002. Fifteen percent of high school students
reported using illicit drugs monthly, down from 22.5 percent in 2001-2002.

That figure put high school students' drug use below the national
average of 20 percent. Marijuana use among county high school students
in 2002-2003 also was below the national average.

Early experimentation:

One area in which Shelby County students in some grades exceeded
national averages included the use of uppers such as speed, and
downers such as Valium and sleeping pills, before arriving at school.

"The fact that we have a high percent of kids who use them before
school is bothersome," Ireland said. "We've spent a lot of time and
effort over the last couple of years to bring up parents' awareness
level that these things are happening."

Shelby County schools will continue to increase efforts to curb drug
use, particularly among middle school students, said Cindy Warner,
county schools public relations supervisor. "That age group is one
particular age group that we're really going to have to hit hard."

Survey results show that "kids are starting to experiment with drugs
and alcohol at very early ages," Ken Mobley, county schools
coordinator of student services, said in a news release. School
officials need to intervene at the middle school level, he said. "If
we don't reach them there, it is often too late."

In 2002, the school system expanded the SWAT program (Student War
Against Temptation), a voluntary random drug testing program, to all
middle and high schools. It was launched at Oak Mountain High in 2001
after parents and other community members became concerned that the
school had earned a reputation for high student drug use.

`Heads in the sand':

School officials also are placing renewed emphasis on programs such as
CAP (Chemical Awareness Program) and bringing in more guest speakers
to address drug abuse, Warner said.

But some say middle school just isn't early enough. Nationwide, "the
average age for drug experimentation is 91/2 years old. That's the
fourth grade," said Ed Burns, a Shelby County psychologist who
specializes in substance abuse and violence among youth. In Shelby
County, students reported first using marijuana and alcohol at age
12-13, while tobacco use began at age 10-11, according to the survey.
County students did drugs and consumed alcohol most often at a
friend's house, followed by home, the survey said.

"Those are issues that parents are going to have to take care of and
do a better role of monitoring those situations," Ireland said.

Burns said the lack of parental involvement in Shelby County is
disappointing. "I've been in this business 43 years and I'm most
amazed by the volume of drug use and the lack of parents being
concerned about it," he said. "Shelby County really has a problem and
Shelby County parents continue to stick their heads in the sand about
it."

An anti-drug community task force survey released in July found
similar results in Hoover schools, where liquor consumption among
seventh-graders rose 7.2 percent over the past two years.

Nez Calhoun, spokeswoman for Jefferson County Schools, said she is not
aware of a drug and alcohol survey conducted by that school system.
Officials with Birmingham schools were unavailable Monday to answer
questions regarding any survey.