— TIMOTHY LA ROCHE
CLAREMONT — When people come through the booking room of the Claremont Police Department, Chief Mark Chase often asks whether the risk was worth the reward.
When it comes to any number of social issues facing teenagers today, he says it’s a question that young people should ask themselves.
Chase joined a panel of students and educators on Thursday to discuss the realities of substance use and other social issues affecting high school students.
A group of Stevens High School students led the discussion, giving parents in the audience an in-depth view into what students are experiencing.
The discussion focused around data from the Centers for Disease Control’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey. According to SAU 6 Student Assistance Provider Kara Toms, the survey asks students more than 100 questions covering topics ranging from seatbelt usage to binge drinking. Students across the state take the survey every other year, keying researchers into patterns across time.
“The data is really consistent over time,” Toms said. “You can see trends.”
Some data points, like the steady increase of students who do not perceive marijuana use as concerning, reflect broader legal changes, Chase said.
About 62 percent of Claremont students reported on the 2017 survey that they did not think marijuana use by their peers was concerning. However, the number of students who reported regularly using marijuana was much smaller at 22 percent.
“If 22 percent of student are smoking marijuana regularly, that means that 78 percent of students are not smoking marijuana regularly,” Toms said.
Chase noted that as restrictions loosen on marijuana, law enforcement efforts to curb its usage have relaxed. The uptick in Claremont students viewing marijuana not as a concerning substance mirror trends seen among adults as well, he noted.
About 13 percent of students also reported having been offered or taken drugs while on school property. Students in the panel said that it is increasingly easy to gain access to marijuana as a high school student.
Cigarette usage, however, is on a steady decline, Toms said. But data points to vaporizer use rising as the technology becomes more accessible.
“Its new territory that’s coming out,” Toms said. “It’s definitely on the rise”
Students in the panel noted that many of their peers saw vaping as a “less risky” alternative to smoking cigarettes. The vaporizer devices are small enough to be easily tucked away, and the vapor dissipates quicker than smoke, making the habit easy to hide.
However, the various flavored “juices” used in the vaporizers are poorly regulated, and some can contain doses of nicotine even greater than found in cigarettes.
Similarly, teenage alcohol use was another area of concern for parents in the audience.
On the 2017 survey, 58 percent of students in Claremont reported having easy access to alcohol. Another 31 percent of Claremont students also reported not perceiving risks for peers that consume alcohol on a daily basis.
“If parents are saying that they don’t approve of their students drinking, that has a really big effect” Toms said.
Like marijuana usage though, the number of students who reported actually partaking in alcohol use regularly was less than perceptions at 28 percent of students. An even smaller 17 percent of students reported binge drinking regularly.
“Things have got to change,” SHS junior Teresa Varela said. “It could start here.”
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