METH FIGHT SUCCESSFUL, BUT BIGGER CHALLENGE CONTINUES ON

The release last week of the 2010 Youth Survey showing a drop in the
number of Arizona teenagers using methamphetamine is good news, no
doubt of that. But the bigger picture regarding teens and intoxicants
still shows the frustrating battle that continues against the Big Three.

That would be, namely, alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana.

Other substances, like cocaine, heroin, inhalants, Ecstasy and meth
(all of which rightly have had nation-wide campaigns against them), do
not come close to racking up the number of teen users like those three
consistently do.

The state and the county should be applauded for the 65-percent drop
in teen meth use between 2006 and 2010. The numbers are a good
indication that concentrated effort on a problem can make a healthy
difference.

The Arizona Criminal Justice Commission's Arizona Youth Survey
questions eighth graders, 10th graders and 12th graders on a variety
of issues, including substance use. It showed that since 2006 in
Yavapai County in all three grades the number of those trying alcohol
and cigarettes has declined overall, but this year's eighth graders
showed a renewed interest in marijuana. And the survey continues to
show that alcohol is the most tempting of all substances, growing more
so as the teens grow older.

So while the general teen use of the Big Three has declined since the
2006 survey, it is still deplorably high.

The campaign against meth showed us all the physical manifestations of
its short-term and long-term use. There were no doctors propounding
its value and no law officers proposing it be legalized. Meth is nasty
and dangerous, and that message has gotten across to most.

The Big Three, on the other hand, remain culturally attractive to
teens. They are just seen as the passage to adulthood. Most kids in
Yavapai County see at least two of the three in use every day. They
know that only an age barrier separates them from two of the three.
For too many, the adults in their lives do not take the ban on
underage consumption all that seriously.

Keeping inquisitive kids healthy and sober and free of alcohol,
cigarettes and marijuana remains a much bigger and longer fight than
the successful campaign against meth.