SURVEY: ALCOHOL USE DROPS AMONG STEAMBOAT SPRINGS STUDENTS

Steamboat Springs - Alcohol use among Steam-boat Springs School
District seventh- to 12th-graders in 2010 declined from 2008,
according to survey results presented Monday night to the School
Board.

According to the Steam-boat results from the Heal-thy Kids Colorado
Survey Routt County Community Report, marijuana use stayed
relatively flat during the same time period - and at or near state
averages by grade level.

"What we saw, we've made some significant improvements, particularly
in underage alcohol use," said Grand Futures Prevention Coalition
Managing Director Dervla Lacy, who presented the results. "We should
all be really happy about that."

But Lacy acknowledged that marijuana use had increased in some grade
levels. She said Grand Futures would focus on ways to curb marijuana
use among middle and high school students in addition to continuing
its efforts with alcohol.

Grand Futures, which serves Moffat, Grand and Routt counties and works
to promote healthy lifestyles through alternatives to substance abuse,
administered the anonymous and optional survey to 612 Steamboat
students in spring.

Students also were surveyed about delinquency, personal safety and
violence, school and family, and mental health and physical health.
High school students also were asked about sexual behavior.

A higher percentage of students surveyed last year in most grades
reported using less alcohol in their lifetimes and in the past 30 days
than their 2008 counterparts.

Lacy and Grand Futures Routt County Coordinator Kate Marshall, who
helped present the results, said several times that the survey results
from 12th-graders couldn't be considered accurate because only 45
students in that grade completed it.

School Board members asked whether there was a connection between
marijuana use and the presence of three medical marijuana dispensaries
in Steamboat.

Lacy was quick not to draw a connection between the dispensaries and
increased use among students surveyed because the dispensaries opened
only a few months before students took the survey last spring.

Grand Futures will use the data to create parent education workshops
on topics such as cyber-bullying and sexting, raising teens, youth
substance use and abuse, and juvenile justice, Lacy said. She said the
first workshop could be in February or March.

Marshall said she's also been working with student groups, such as the
Steamboat Springs Teen Council, to create a social marketing campaign
to engage more youths.

"I think we got some good information and had some questions for
follow-up information, especially about how better to educate
parents," Superintendent Shalee Cunningham said.