YOUTH USE OF ALCOHOL, DRUGS HOLDS CONSTANT

Sources Of Booze Have Increased Since 1999 Survey

About the same percentage of local kids are using drugs and alcohol now as
in 1999, but more of them report that they can get booze from many sources.
Meanwhile, students are more likely to use marijuana than tobacco.

These are some of the more significant findings from the California Healthy
Kids Survey administered to local students in the fall of 2001. It was the
second time local educators have given the survey, which aims to gauge the
health and lifestyle of county youth.

But the real numbers may be worse than what's depicted in the survey,
according to eight high school students interviewed for this story.

"I know a lot of people who go to a lot of parties," said Camilla Williams,
a junior at San Luis Obispo High School.

Some of the new questions asked in 2001 elicited the most surprising
answers for organizers at the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education,
which conducted both surveys.

Roughly one in four students said they were bullied in the previous year or
were afraid of being beaten up, and that more than three-fourths of the
fifth-graders polled said they were home alone after school most or all of
the time in neighborhoods where they did not feel safe.

More than 8,000 students in grades 5, 7, 9 and 11 from every district in
the county completed the anonymous poll last fall. It was given in the
weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Fifth-graders were included for
the first time.

Organizers use the information gathered to apply for grants to develop
prevention programs that address the greatest needs.

Alcohol and drug use

There was not significant change from 1999 in most categories examining
drug or alcohol use. The questions on drugs asked students if they had used
alcohol, tobacco or marijuana within the past 30 days.

Nearly half of all the juniors surveyed said they used alcohol -- the same
as two years before. But the freshmen and seventh-graders' results showed
fewer who said they had a drink, about one-third and one-tenth respectively.

The numbers should probably be higher, according to two groups of San Luis
Obispo High School students interviewed separately off campus during lunch.
They also thought marijuana use was almost as common as alcohol use.

"I wouldn't doubt it," said Camilla Williams, a junior.

Williams and four other girls -- a junior, a sophomore and two freshmen --
thought the the use of alcohol and other drugs might be going up slightly
among their classmates. They all said they know people who could get them
alcohol or other drugs, but said they don't use either and don't go to parties.

A group of three boys echoed the girls' comments. Members of both groups
said they had talks with their parents in recent years about drug use and
felt comfortable talking with them about such issues.

Ricco Feraro, a sophomore, said parents could influence their children's
drug use with communication.

"Talk to them about it," he said.

Getting alcohol

The most significant surges on the survey were in the ways in which
children obtain alcohol.

"There are increases at all levels," said Christine Enyart, an assistant
grant coordinator with the county Office of Education. She presented the
findings at the monthly meeting of the Children's Services Network, a
nonprofit interagency group created 10 years ago to better coordinate
children's services in this county.

In the 1999 survey, 36 percent of ninth-graders reported getting alcohol at
parties without adults. Two years later, as eleventh-graders, the
percentage had climbed to 65.

Increases nearly as large over the same time period were reported by
juniors who said they get alcohol at friends' homes, at parties where
adults were present and at their own residences.

Enyart said her office is coordinating workshops in December to inform
parents about the personal and legal risks they take when parties are held
in their homes, whether or not they are there at the time.

"The parents -- just the mere fact these parties are going on in their
homes -- are probably not aware of the liability," she said.

A look at tobacco

Tobacco use was down slightly -- between 1 and 4 percentage points -- in
each age group. Enyart attributed this in part to anti-tobacco programs
begun a decade ago.

Students were more likely to use marijuana than tobacco, according to the
survey.

Twenty-eight percent of the juniors said they had smoked pot within the
past month, as did 18 percent of freshmen, compared to 25 percent and 17
percent, respectively, in 1999.

In the binge-drinking category, slightly fewer students than in 1999 said
they had five or more drinks of alcohol within a couple hours in the past
30 days. The percentage was high, nonetheless, at 32 percent among juniors
and 18 percent of freshmen.

Among the fifth-graders, 6 percent reported using alcohol in the previous
30 days, and 4 percent reported using tobacco.

Alone after school

One of Enyart's major concerns in the findings was the 61 percent of
fifth-graders who said they are home alone after school every day. Another
16 percent said they are most of the time.

Enyart wants to speak with these students to question them further about
their after-school routines.

"We need to know if they're not using the after-school programs, why not?"

She said that could help determine the need for additional programs and
help refine existing ones to better serve students and families.

The survey included some first-time questions for all four grades about
bullying on school property and about how safe they feel in their own
neighborhoods and at school. Roughly one in four students said they were
afraid of being beaten up at school or had been pushed, shoved, slapped,
hit or kicked in the previous 12 months at school by someone who was not
kidding.

Nearly all students in all grades felt safe at school. But just 76 percent
of fifth-graders said they felt safe in their neighborhood, compared to 95
percent of 11th-graders.