Marin Voice: A student’s view of why teens experiment with drugs and alcohol
By Johnny Cribbin
June 20, 2019
In the spirit of youth, teenagers may want to experiment, have fun on the weekends and sometimes follow their friends’ behaviors. According to the California Healthy Kids Survey in 2017-’18, 6% of Marin County’s seventh-graders, 26% of ninth-graders and 49% of 11th-graders reported consuming alcohol.
Substance use among adolescents often starts slowly with curiosity and a little partying on the weekends, which is something that I have witnessed as a high school student in Marin. It is imperative that parents and pediatricians work collaboratively to mitigate the unintended consequences due to underage substance use and misuse.
Adolescent drug misuse and abuse prevention starts with parents. When parents smoke, consume alcohol and use a variety of other drugs, it normalizes a message into a child’s brain that drugs are acceptable.
There are many good strategies to talk to your child about substance use. Some recommendations are to have a one-on-one conversation, to not start a conversation in a punitive manner and to be understanding if a situation has occurred. Opening up a dialogue about what is happening could help build a connection with your child in a healthier manner than punishment.
Monitoring your child’s behavior and acts can guide parents so they know what friends their child is hanging around, know how they are doing in school, and making sure they aren’t hanging out too late on the weekends. Many questions that parents should ask themselves when using substances around their children are:
What do I think my kid is thinking when I am drinking? Am I using substances to celebrate events around my children? Will my child also want to use substances like me and follow in my footsteps?
It’s not recommended to ever tell your child that “everybody drinks,” and “marijuana won’t hurt you, it’s just a plant,” because it normalizes usage of products.
If parents can role-play scenarios ahead of time, it will prepare their child when confronted by an uncomfortable situation. Make sure that your child has good excuses so when put in partying situations your child knows what to do. Examples can be, “My parents wouldn’t like that and I can get in trouble,” or “I can’t drink. My parents breathalyze me”.
One of the biggest emerging problems that is happening right now is teen addiction. According to a 2016 national survey on drug use and health, “About 1.4 million teens are in need of treatment for a drug-related problem.” Dr. Kevin Wandler of Advanced Recovery Systems addiction treatment program, states that, “Teens have chemically naive brains that have not been exposed to drugs or alcohol. The neurochemical effects that they get are more intense than folks older than 25.”
This could explain why some teens may be more prone to use when stressed out or depressed because it will cause temporary feelings of calmness and relaxation.
Many drugs being used in Marin include narcotics, depressants, stimulants, anesthetics, hallucinogens, alcohol and marijuana. There are so many options for teens to choose from and access is easy. In Marin, data from the California Healthy Kids Survey indicate that right now 2% of seventh-graders, 10% of ninth-graders, and 19% of 11th-graders have all used some form of a drug in the last 30 days. I believe if every pediatrician talked to their patients more about substance use, misuse and abuse about prevention and reasons not to get started with drugs, that the percentages would be drastically reduced.
When parents and pediatricians come together with the youth of Marin, I believe that change will happen. When parents step up to have more conversations with their children around substance use in combination with pediatricians educating teens on the health implications of substance use we will see a more collaborative approach to prevention.
Johnny Cribbin just completed his junior year at Terra Linda High School.