Pubdate: Mon, 14 Jan 2013
Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright: 2013 The Columbus Dispatch
Contact:  http://www.dispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/93
Author: Lindsay Friedman

SCHOOLS SAY NO TO OLD DRUG PROGRAMS

Realizing that more young people are no longer "just saying no" to
drugs, local schools are changing their approaches to drugprevention
programs.

Districts such as Westerville, Pickerington, Bexley, Dublin and
Hamilton now offer drug counseling as an alternative to suspension or
expulsion for students caught using drugs.

Since the loss of federal funding for schools' prevention efforts in
2009, officials are discovering that DARE and zero-tolerance policies
are no longer enough, said Greg Viebranz, the spokesman for
Westerville schools.

Westerville is building relationships with anti-drug groups and
referring students who use drugs to counselors. Pickerington also is
offering counseling.

"We can't be naive; we aren't going to tell you to just say no," said
Zach Howard, the principal at Pickerington Central High School. "It's
not about punishing students; it's about helping them make better,
well-informed decisions."

Inspired by a program in Dublin, Bexley is hiring what it calls a
student and community specialist to strengthen relationships among
students, parents and teachers.

"The program will not get it done by itself, but what it will show is
that we are paying attention to the whole child (not just their
academic status)," Bexley Superintendent Mike Johnson said. "But, we
can't do it alone."

The changes cannot come soon enough for the parents of Tyler Campbell,
who died of an overdose in 2011.

Tyler was a 2007 graduate of Pickerington North High School with a
scholarship to play football at the University of Akron. After he
sustained a number of injuries requiring prescription drugs, he
developed an addiction.

"Tyler was a normal suburban kid," said Wayne Campbell, Tyler's
father. "This could happen to truly anyone, and it's happened to a lot
of good people. No one is exempt."

Inspired by their son's struggles, the family created Tyler's Light, a
drug prevention program that works to change the way schools,
including Westerville schools, approach substance abuse.

"It needs to be updated, upgraded and more in tune for what's out
there and more in tune for high school students," Mr. Campbell said.

The year before Tyler's death, the Ohio Department of Health reported
a record 1,544 accidental drug-overdose deaths, reflective of a 39
percent rise in prescription-drug abuse.

Though the number of kids smoking cigarettes and drinking has
significantly dropped in recent years, the rate of young people using
prescription drugs such as Adderall and Vicodin remains high at 14.8
percent, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The institute also reported that the number of high-school seniors
reporting regular marijuana use increased by 1.4 percent and
occasional use by 5.9 percent.

The last time specialists saw such a high percentage of kids using
drugs was in the early 1980s, said Dr. Wilson Compton, the director of
the division of epidemiology, services and prevention research at the
National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"It certainly surprised me, and it's a concern," he
said.

Dr. Lloyd Johnston, a senior research scientist at the University of
Michigan and the principal research investigator of the annual
Monitoring the Future study of youth drug use, said the upswing in
drug abuse is concerning because adolescents are more likely to become
dependent on drugs and early drug use can cause a lapse in brain
development.

Use of gateway drugs such as marijuana can lead to use of
more-dangerous illicit or prescription drugs. Pot has become three to
10 times more potent compared with the drug 15 to 20 years ago, he
said.

In addition, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
reported an association between early marijuana use and a decline in
IQ by about eight points after following more than 1,000 young
marijuana users into adulthood.

Though these studies were conducted before the recent legalization of
marijuana in Colorado and Washington, the popularity of pot and
prescription drugs is nothing new, said Dr. Steve Matson, a professor
of pediatrics at Ohio State University and director of the Opiate
Addiction Clinic at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

"We are in one of those cycles, for a while (kids) think it's bad for
them, and then for a while, they don't," Matson said. "At this point,
(the gradual increase) does have something to do with all these
stories of states legalizing (marijuana), because if you can, then it
must be safe." 
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