StopTeenDrugAddiction

A survey of alcohol and drug use among Sumner County students reveals binge drinking and use of prescription drugs are on the rise, according to the school system’s annual student survey.

The survey was commissioned by the Sumner County Anti-Drug Coalition, a group of education, health and local leaders who hope to use the data to track the performance of programs aimed at promoting healthier lifestyles among teens and pre-teens.

The survey sampled almost 700 students in sixth, eighth, 10th and 12th grades in White House, Portland, Westmoreland, Hendersonville and Gallatin.

Pat Conner, the county’s Safe Schools, Healthy Students coordinator, told school board members at a recent study session that Sumner County mirrors national survey trends that indicate prescription drug abuse among high school students is quickly becoming an epidemic.

According to the survey, 6 percent of Sumner 12th-graders and 12 percent of 10th-graders reported having used prescription drugs without a doctor’s orders to get high within the past 30 days. Two percent of sixth-graders and 1 percent of eighth-graders said they had abused prescription drugs as well.

Called “pharming” among teens, gaining access to prescription drugs is as easy as going to the medicine cabinet at home or at a friend’s house, Conner said.

“They’ll have no clue what the drug is or does; they’ll take it or give it their friends,” Conner said. “It doesn’t matter what it is.”

There’s a common misconception that if a drug comes from a doctor, it’s safe to take, officials say.

The rise in prescription drug use among teens comes as no surprise to local law enforcement officials.

“It’s the No. 1 battle we’re fighting right now,” said Kelly Murphy, director of the 18th Judicial District Drug Task Force.

“Prescription drugs are easy to get, and (dealing) is attractive with the way the economy is now because you can get a $20 pain pill prescription and flip it for $200,” Murphy said. “Sadly, we’ve caught dealers as young as 16 years old.”

To combat the drug problem in schools, resource officers and local law enforcement agencies schedule routine narcotics sweeps, that include the use of drug-sniffing dogs, four times a year at all high schools.

A combined 49 misdemeanor juvenile drug arrests and seven juvenile felony arrests were made on school grounds last year by resource officers who work for the Sumner County Sheriff’s Department in seven county high schools.

Law enforcement officers say they don’t do the sweeps because they necessarily expect to find narcotics in the schools, but rather as a preventive measure demonstrating zero tolerance.

Another trend reported from the survey is the frequency of students binge drinking.

The survey asked students how many times they’d had five or more alcoholic drinks in a row in a two-week period. Twenty-seven percent of high school seniors surveyed reported binge drinking at some time during the two-week period surveyed.

“Typically, that’s what young people do. They drink to get drunk,” Conner said. “They don’t sit around sipping a glass of wine. They funnel beer and mix energy drinks with liquor.”

Alcohol is the second-most commonly used drug among students in Sumner County with 36 percent of seniors and 28 percent of sophomores reporting they had used alcohol within 30 days of the survey. Tobacco is number one.

In contrast, the student survey showed past 30-day usage of alcohol use among Sumner teens has fallen 5 percent since 2006.

Overall usage of alcohol dropped 5 percent in all grades except 12th, where it spiked 8 percent.

Conner says the spike might indicate seniors are using at a higher rate, but it also may indicate that students are waiting to begin using alcohol. “I think we’re starting to see some changes in perceptions and attitudes,” she said. “Kids don’t think it’s that cool anymore.”

Sumner County students on average begin using tobacco, alcohol and marijuana around age 14-15, the survey shows. “That’s where we see a huge rise, between eighth and ninth grade, in drug use and experimentation,” Conner said.

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