SURVEY: DRUG, ALCOHOL USE SPIKES AT 10TH-GRADE LEVEL

Students moving up to high school are more likely to use drugs and alcohol,
according to a survey of local students released Wednesday. Small
percentages of students in the sixth and eighth grades have used marijuana,
alcohol and tobacco, but the numbers spike when they reach the 10th grade.

Reasons vary. But local officials studying the problem say students in the
ninth grade are going through a transition period, including puberty and
leaving their middle schools to attend the larger high schools.

It's also a time when parents pull away from their children to either
respect their privacy or because of a breakdown in communication, said
Debbie Johnson, prevention specialist with the RiverValley Regional
Prevention Center.

"When we pull back and there are no adult role models, they look to each
other," she said Wednesday.

All sixth-, eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders in the Owensboro Public,
Owensboro Catholic and Daviess County school systems were surveyed last
fall about their drug and alcohol use as part of the Kentucky Incentive
Project, a statewide tool used to gauge adolescent behavior. The survey
included students at St. Mary of the Woods in Whitesville and the Mary
Carrico School in Knottsville.

Students had been surveyed before about drug and alcohol use, but this
recent KIP data is the first time all the schools used the same instrument.
The school systems decided last year, upon request from a local board
looking at drug and alcohol issues, to use the KIP survey in an effort to
gather similar data. It now will be given every two years.

Daviess County's Kentucky Agency for Substance Abuse Policy was formed last
summer, as mandated by the state, to address drug and alcohol issues and
develop a strategic plan to tackle the problem. It will use the KIP data to
update its goals for the coming fiscal year.

"We are just now starting to process this with our counselors and
principals," said Chuck Green, director of pupil personnel in the Daviess
County system. "I think we have to key in on the ninth-graders. They are
the most vulnerable."

Green, a member of the Daviess County substance abuse board, met with other
board members and prevention specialists Wednesday during a board meeting
at the prevention center in the Cigar Factory Mall.

The schools are considering holding a forum in April for guidance
counselors, family resource centers and other school officials to discuss
the material.

"This is something in the interest of all the schools to work together,"
Johnson told board members.

Here are some survey results:

- -- 4 percent of eighth-graders smoke, compared to 16 percent of
10th-graders and 23 percent of 12th-graders.

- -- 3 percent of eighth-graders reported drinking alcohol 40 or more times,
compared to 14 percent of 10th-graders and 27 percent of 12th-graders.

- -- 2 percent of eighth-graders reported using marijuana 40 or more times,
compared to 11 percent of 10th-graders and 17 percent of 12th-graders.

Additionally, the number of students who didn't think using drugs or
alcohol was wrong went up as they aged. The numbers were similar for
parental disapproval. As children age, parents are less inclined to
disapprove of them using drugs and alcohol.

- -- 20 percent of 12th-graders said their parents thought it was not wrong
or only a "little bit" wrong for the student to drink alcohol.

- -- 24 percent of 12th-graders said their parents thought it was not wrong
or only a "little bit" wrong for the student to smoke cigarettes.

- -- 8 percent of 12th-graders said their parents thought it was wrong or
only a "little bit" wrong for the student to smoke marijuana.

"You've got parental approval for drugs and alcohol," Johnson told the group.

Beverly Howard, a counselor at Owensboro Catholic High School, said some
parents consider the use of drugs and alcohol as a "right of passage."

In addition to the school systems, Johnson said groups working to prevent
drug and alcohol abuse, law enforcement and health agencies can use the
information to create policies and programs. But it will take a change in
community perceptions toward drugs and alcohol before any real change can
occur, she said.

"The school systems cannot do this alone," Johnson said after the meeting.
"The No. 1 place they're getting alcohol is from the adults. That's what
they're telling us anecdotally."