Bermuda Releases Student Drug Survey

Via The Royal Gazette in Bermuda:

This week, Bermuda released the results of the 2011 National School Survey, which contains data on substance abuse in students (the survey can be viewed here).

The survey found that the average age of a student’s first use of inhalants was 9.3 years. The survey noted that inhalant use does decrease as students get older, but Judith Burgess does not find this comforting. Ms. Burgess is the executive director of PRIDE Bermuda (Parent Resource Institute for Drug Education). She says that the decrease in inhalant abuse could indicate that students are moving on to other drugs as they get older.

The survey also found that students cited “sensation seeking” as the main reason for trying drugs. Ms. Burgess notes, “I would say that especially with that risk factor of sensation seeking being higher than I for one estimated, they are likely seeking sensation at that young age. If they start at that age I don’t think they are just going to stop.”

Ms. Burgess has said that her organization will look at developing drug education for younger students.

Inhalant Abuse & Runaways

Interesting research study via BMC Public Health:

“Running away experience and psychoactive substance use among adolescents in Taiwan: multi-city street outreach survey”- Published: 20 January 2010

A few of the study's findings follows below:

• The lifetime risk of inhalant use increased steadily from adolescents who had experienced a trial runaway episode (one time lasting ≤ 1 day), to those with extended runaway experience (≥ 2 times or lasting > 1 day), when compared to those who had never ran away.
  
• Adolescents who had their first running away experience > 6 months previously had a greater risk of inhalant use over the past 6-months than those with a similar experience within the last 6 months.
  
• Both alcohol and tobacco use were most frequently initiated before the first running away,
  whereas inhalant use was most frequently initiated after this event
  
• When adolescents who were fleeing an unsatisfactory home life were compared to
  those who ran away for excitement, the former tended to have a higher risk of inhalant use.

New Inhalant Data: 2009 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey

The results of the 2009 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey were recently released.

Below you'll find inhalant-specific data from their findings. Click on each image below for a larger copy.

Fire 'Down Under'

From BBC World News

An Australian man found himself engulfed in flames earlier this month after aggressively storming police officers “with a container of petrol fuel and a cigarette lighter.” Aiming to prevent any sort of arson related attack; officers fired Taser stun guns in defense “penetrating the suspect's skin with over 50,000 volts of electricity from two copper wires attached to the gun.”

Witnesses divulged to police that the suspect was indeed sniffing petroleum at the time of the incident, allowing investigators to determine that remaining deposits of fuel located on the suspect’s face triggered the fire that left him with 3rd degree burns to over ten percent of his body.

The suspect is currently being hospitalized in Western Australia and remains in critical condition despite his close encounter with death. He is being charged with “assault to prevent arrest and possession of [an intoxicating] sniffing substance.”

New Substance Abuse Messaging Data from NSDUH

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) recently released “Exposure to Substance Use Prevention Messages and Substance Use among Adolescents: 2002 to 2007.”

Some interesting findings within the report:

• From 2002-2007 less adolescents reported exposure to drug or alcohol use prevention message through media (5.3%) and programs outside of school (1.4%)
  
• During the same period, 1.5% more adolescents report that they talked with their parents about the dangers of drug, alcohol, or tobacco use within the past year.
  
• However, in 2007, fewer adolescents report talking with their parents about these dangers than in 2004, 2005, and 2006.
  
• Talking with a parent about substance use decreased with age (ie more 12 & 13 year olds report talking with their parents about this than 16 &17 year olds) but conversely, the older the adolescent, the more likely to receive prevention messages through media.
  
• In general, adolescents who reported having been exposed to substance abuse messages within the past year were less likely to use cigarettes, alcohol, and illicit drugs in the past month.


• From 2002-2007, females were more than males to have talked with a parent about the dangers of substance abuse, to have received prevention messages through media sources, and to have received prevention messages through school sources in the past year.

Disturbing New Links to Early Substance Abuse

Disturbing new links to early substance abuse from a study that was just published in the October issue of Psychological Science. It tracked “1,037 children from the age of three until 32.”

• "Children who try drugs or alcohol before age 15 run a greater risk of being substance-dependent as adults, contracting sexually transmitted diseases, dropping out of school or being convicted of a crime."
• "Girls who dabble in drugs and alcohol early on are more likely to become pregnant before they are 21."
• "Children who tried alcohol or drugs early on “were two to three times more likely than non-early-exposed adolescents to be substance dependent, to have herpes infection, to have had an early pregnancy, and to have failed to obtain educational qualifications."
• "Youngsters who were exposed to drugs and alcohol before 15 also had “significantly more criminal convictions” than those who were not."
• "Half the children who dabbled with drink and drugs early on had no prior history of behavior issues, the study found."

“Findings from this study are consistent with the message that early substance use leads to significant problems in adolescents’ future lives, said the study’s lead author, Candice Odgers of the University of California, Irvine."

“Even adolescents with no prior history of behavioral problems or family history of substance abuse problems were at risk for poor health outcomes if they used substances prior to age 15,” she said."