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TEEN SURVEY: DRUG, ALCOHOL USE DROPS

Andrea Dewberry, 11, a fifth-grader at Utica's Albany Street School and a member of the JCTOD Outreach Youth Voice Initiative, tells the five most important reasons why she doesn't use drugs.  She spoke Wednesday nIght after the 2003 Oneida County Teen Assessment Program Survey results were released at Mohawk Valley Community College.

A survey of 3,700 Oneida County high school and junior high school students shows teen alcohol and drug use is down from 1999 and, in many cases, lower than the national average.

"The great majority of our youth are doing fine out there," said Chip Bassett, Oneida County's principal planner and the man who orchestrated the 2003 Teen Assessment Project Survey.  "And they're doing better than they were in 1999."

Bassett said the numbers show area families, schools and communities have a lot to be proud of but also reveal that local youths still face many pitfalls as they navigate the road to adulthood.

Three young people from the Municipal Housing Authority's Youth Leadership Pride Team said they often encounter pressures to try drugs and alcohol.

"It's the social scene," said James Davis, a 15-year-old Thomas R.  Proctor Senior High School student.  "People thing you've got to do what the popular people think you've got to do."

And 13-year-old Anthony Ficchi, a seventh-grader at John F.  Kennedy Middle School, said he has been offered drugs many times.

The most dramatic decline was seen in tobacco use.  Of the seventh-, ninth- and 11th-graders surveyed, 28 percent said they had ever smoked an entire cigarette, while in 1999, 44 percent said they had.

While 48 percent of those surveyed said they had consumed alcohol before, down from 54 percent 1999.  And, Bassett noted, binge drinking -- consuming five or more drinks within a two-to three-hour period -- also declined.  In 1999, 77 percent said they had never engaged in the practice, compared to 86 percent who said they had not in 2003.

Marijuana use also was down, with 28 percent saying they had tried it in 1999 compared to 25 percent in 2003.

As for sexual activity, 86 percent of seventh-graders said they had not had intercourse, compared with 72 percent of ninth-graders and 55 percent of 11th-graders.

The county's tobacco, alcohol and marijuana use numbers also were below the national average.  Bassett said survey analysts took into consideration the possibility that some teens may have either under- reported or exaggerated certain behaviors.

Parents will be relieved to hear that the number who said they had seriously considered suicide also declined from 24 percent to 20 percent.  The number who actually attempted suicide, however, remained the same, at 9 percent.

Additionally, students reported that their parents are more involved in encouraging them and defining limits.

"It seems that parents are supervising kids more than they used to, Bassett said.  "Parents seem on top of things a little more."

Comparing 1999 and 2003 results, parents appear to be doing more to encourage students with their schoolwork, getting to know their children's friends, expecting them to call if they are going to be late and disciplining them if they break rules.

Conversely, Bassett noted that parents are talking less to their kids about the risks inherent in sex, alcohol and drugs.

"Maybe they feel they know their kids better than they used to and they don't feel they need to," Bassett theorized.

One way or another, parents are the role model of choice for the largest number of youth, with 24 percent of teens surveyed selecting Mom and Dad as their personal guide.  But before parents get too excited, 26 percent of the teens said they had no role model at all, and 18 percent selected a celebrity or sports star.

Despite improved relationships with parents, more teens still turn to friends when they have a problem, with 49 percent going to a peer, compared to 24 percent asking a parent.

The information in the survey will be used by schools and organizations that help youths to develop programs.

COMING UP This weekend, the O-D will take another look at the teen survey, talking to students about their concerns and the ways to help them.