MORE TEENS LISTENING TO DRUG-FREE MESSAGES

Montana high school students are using less tobacco, alcohol and other
drugs than they were two years ago and much less than a decade ago,
according to the latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

The 2011 survey results released this week by the Montana Office of
Public Instruction show a marked decline in alcohol use by students
from the previous survey:

The number of students reporting they had five or more drinks in a row
within the previous month dropped from 30.1 percent to 25.2 percent.

The fact that it's an improvement to have one in four students binge
drinking shows how much more work must be done in preventing risky
behavior.

A decade earlier, 41.4 percent of Montana high school students
reported binge drinking within 30 days before the survey.

YRBS results are on a positive trend for other types of substance
abuse.

16.5 percent said they had smoked within the previous month, down frm
28.5 percent in the 2001 survey.

Less change was reported in smokeless tobacco use. In 2001, 15.7
percent of students reported using chew, snuff or dip within the
previous month; in 2011, 13.5 percent reported using.

Marijuana use also is down since 2009 and down significantly since
2001, according to the survey. According to the 2011 survey, fewer
students used marijuana, fewer used it before age 13, fewer used it
within the previous 30 days and fewer used it on school property.

In 2001, 27.1 percent of high school students said they had used
marijuana in the previous month. That percentage was 23 in 2009 and
21.2 in 2011.

Five-and-a-half percent of students surveyed this February said they
had used marijuana on school property.

Just 3.1 percent of students said they had ever tried methamphetamine,
a number unchanged from the 2009 survey, but well below the 12.6
percent who said they'd tried meth in 2001.

Although Montana voters legalized the use of marijuana for specific
medical purposes in 2004, the percentage of students who have ever
tried it has declined and the percentage of students currently using
it has stayed about the same. With one in five high schools saying
they'd smoked recently, there's a great need for education about the
affects of marijuana and the risks of use.

The survey indicated that the drug ecstasy has grown in popularity
with 8.2 percent reporting they have tried it -- the highest
percentage reported in the five biennial surveys in which the question
was asked.

New this year was a question on prescription drug abuse. Asked if they
have ever taken a prescription drug such as OxyContin, Percocet,
Vicodin, codeine, Adderall, Ritalin or Xanax without a doctor's
prescription, 18.4 percent said yes. The student answers confirm other
data indicating high incidence of prescription drug abuse among teens.

Another disturbing survey result is 25.2 percent of students reporting
that they were offered, sold or given an illegal drug on school
property within the past 12 months. That number had dropped to 20.7
percent in the 2009 survey after hovering around 25 percent since
2003; it was 29.5 percent in 2001.

The takeaway from the survey is that prevention works. Several years
of a comprehensive tobacco use prevention program reduced underage
smoking. The Montana Meth Project graphically told Montana teens why
they shouldn't try it even once. Efforts to combat drunken driving and
underage drinking are having an effect.

The 2011 Youth Risk Behavior survey was completed by 4,148 students in
46 randomly sampled high schools in Montana in February. This Centers
for Disease Control survey used every two years for many years
provides a consistent comparison of student reports on risky behaviors
affecting safety and health.

Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau summed up
the value of the survey well, saying it "reminds us how important it
is to continually engage youth in frank conversations about risky
behaviors. It also gives us an opportunity to confront our biggest
challenges in ensuring the safety of our young people and highlights
the efforts of effective programs whose messages are reaching students."