DRUG USE RISING AMONG TEENS, SURVEY SAYS

More Island Teens Are Doing Drugs.

So says a 2004 survey of sixth-, eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders on San
Juan Island. And those survey results will be unveiled in an annual
Community Forum April 25, 6 p.m., in the Friday Harbor High School Commons.
The forum is open to the public.

The forum is sponsored by the San Juan Island Prevention Coalition, Friday
Harbor High School, H.O.T.S. (Helping Out Teens), and San Juan County.

At the forum, Sheriff Bill Cumming and Prevention Coordinator Eden Bailey
will present the results of the Healthy Youth Survey, which is administered
by each Washington school district every two years. The last survey was
done in 2002 and a forum followed in spring 2003.

Cumming and Bailey will also discuss the prevention coalition's Strategic
Plan for addressing substance abuse on the island. A drug identification
kit will be on display so viewers can see what certain drugs look like.

"We have a drug problem on the island," Prevention Coalition Director Susie
Teague said of the survey results. "Alcohol and marijuana are the two
most-used drugs, but there's been an increase in meth use too. Some
students said they have used cocaine."

Teague would not disclose survey results, saying they would be released at
the forum. The survey results were compiled by RMC Research Corp.

The survey results come amid reports from the Sheriff's Department of
growing meth use in the San Juans. The Sheriff's Department is holding
methamphetamine information classes April 13 at Friday Harbor Fire
Department, 10 a.m.; Orcas Island Fire Department, 1 p.m.; and in the
County Commissioners' Hearing Room, County Courthouse, 5 p.m.

And in a non-scientific survey on sanjuanjournal.com, readers have thus far
voted 101-24 in favor of the Sheriff's Department being budgeted money for
a narcotics officer to investigate drug crimes on the islands.