STUDENTS CUTTING DOWN ON ALCOHOL AND DRUGS

Manitoba high school students are using less alcohol and marijuana
than they were three years ago, according to Katheleen Mulroy, the
Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM) counsellor in the Evergreen
School Division. Mulroy recently told the Evergreen School Board that
68.7 per cent of the province's high school students reported alcohol
use in 2007, down from 73 per cent in 2004. She also said student use
of cannabis (marijuana) has declined to 29.2 per cent from 33.3 per
cent over the same period.

The counsellor was presenting the results of an AFM study undertaken
last year in 55 randomly selected schools across the province.
Evergreen schools were not involved, but they have participated in
past AFM studies to gauge the level of drug use by students in grades
seven to 12.

Mulroy said there is a pattern for student use of alcohol and other
substances to increase significantly between grades seven and 12. She
said only 30 per cent of grade seven students and 40 per cent of grade
eights have tasted alcohol while 80 per cent of Grade 12s were users
in 2007.

"The middle grades are where interventions and preventions should be
focused," Mulroy said, adding that younger students are most likely to
change their habits.

She said 20 per cent of students were smoking cigarettes last year and
23.8 per cent were social gamblers, but only .6 per cent were problem
gamblers. She also came up with a new category - the misuse of
prescription drugs or using somebody else's prescription.

"Girls are way more likely to use the prescriptions of others," she
said, noting the figures are 2.4 per cent for girls and 1.8 per cent
for boys.