In the news: Binge drinking & older adults

Many people hear "binge drinking" and think primarily of college students. But a recent CDC report found that the age group most likely to die of alcohol poisoning is actually white men, ages 35-64.

WPIX reporter Carolyn Costello spoke to Odyssey House Vice President, Director of Adult Residential Services Justin Mitchell and one of our ElderCare clients about the reasons why binge drinking is such a problem among this population.

Drug Facts: High School and Youth Trends

As National Drug Facts Week winds down, here's a look at why the goal to shatter the myths about drugs and drug abuse for teens is so important. The data below is a summary from the latest Monitoring the Future survey, from NIDA's website.

Illicit Drug Use

Illicit drug use among teenagers remains high, largely due to increasing popularity of marijuana. After a long period of decline, marijuana use by adolescents has been on the increase. In 2013, 7% of 8th graders, 18% of 10th graders, and 22.7% of 12th graders used marijuana in the past month, up from 5.8%, 13.8% and 19.4% in 2008. Daily use has also increased: 6.5% of 12th graders now use marijuana every day, compared to 5% in the mid-2000s.

Rising marijuana use reflects changing perceptions and attitudes. Young people are showing less disapproval of marijuana use and decreased perception that marijuana is dangerous. The growing perception of marijuana as a safe drug may reflect recent movements to legalize the drug for medical and adult recreational use in many states.

New synthetic drugs are a cause for concern, but their use is not increasing. Synthetic marijuana (also known as Spice or K2)—referring to herbal mixtures laced with synthetic chemicals similar to THC—was added to the MTF survey in 2011, when 11.4% of high school seniors reported using it in the past year; in 2013, it had dropped to 7.9%. These mixtures could be obtained legally until 2012 and are still wrongly perceived as a safe alternative to marijuana. The synthetic stimulants known as “bath salts” were added to the survey in 2012; in 2013, just 0.9% of seniors had used these drugs in the past year.

Non-medical use of prescription and over-the-counter medicines remains a significant part of the teen drug problem. In 2013, 15% of high-school seniors used a prescription drug non-medically in the past year. The survey shows continued abuse of Adderall, commonly used to treat ADHD, with 7.4% of seniors reporting taking it for non-medical reasons in the past year. However, only 2.3% of seniors report abuse of Ritalin, another ADHD medication. Abuse of the opioid pain reliever Vicodin has shown a marked decrease in the last 10 years, now measured at 5.3% for high school seniors, compared to 10.5% in 2003.

Positive trends in the past several years include reduced use of inhalants and less use of cocaine, especially crack cocaine. Past-year inhalant use by younger teens continued a downward trend in 2013, with 5.2% of 8th graders and 3.5% of 10th graders reporting use. Five-year trends of past-year cocaine use across all grades showed a drop as well. Other drugs, such as heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy (MDMA) and hallucinogens, are holding fairly steady.

Alcohol

Alcohol use among teens remains at historically low levels. In 2013, 3.5% of 8th graders, 12.8% of 10th graders, and 26% of 12th graders reported getting drunk in the past month, continuing a downward trend from previous years. Significant declines include sharp drops from previous years in daily alcohol use by 10th and 12th graders (0.9% and 2.2%, respectively, in 2013). In 2013, 22.1% of high school seniors reported binge drinking (defined as 5 or more drinks in a row in the past 2 weeks)—a drop of almost one-third since the late 1990s.

Tobacco

Fewer teens smoke cigarettes than smoke marijuana. Cigarette smoking by high school students peaked in 1996–1997 and has declined continuously since then. In 2013, 9.6% of students surveyed by MTF were current (past-month) cigarette smokers—the lowest teen smoking has been in the history of the survey. By comparison, 15.6% were current marijuana smokers.

Other forms of smoked tobacco are becoming popular, however. The use of hookah water pipes and small cigars has raised public health concerns and has recently been added to the MTF survey. In 2013, 21.4% of 12th graders had smoked a hookah at some point in the past year, an increase from 18.3% in 2012, and 20.4% had smoked a small cigar.

Learn More

Complete MTF survey results are available at www.monitoringthefuture.org. For more information on the survey and its findings, also visit www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/monitoring-future.

Underage drinking widespread in NYC

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) released a study that found widespread drinking among teens in New York City. One-third of teens admit to drinking alcohol in the past month, and half of those admitted to binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks at one time). Drug use was also more prevalent, with 9% of minors surveyed saying they had tried cocaine and 11% ecstasy, compared with less than 1% for nondrinkers.

Elizabeth Dahlem from News 12 Bronx visited Odyssey House Lafayette Avenue to follow up on the study and speak to Faina, one of the girls in treatment, about her experiences with alcohol. Ms. Dahlem also spoke to Susan Plaza, director of housing and mental health services at Odyssey House, about how parents can keep their teens safe.




Odyssey House offers two gender-specific treatment facilities for close to 80 teenagers in residential settings. Young adults in treatment at Odyssey House live and learn in a peer-driven environment that provides family-like structure and support. Not only do participants address their patterns of substance abuse, they also confront the behavioral problems from which they have sought refuge in drugs and learn to live harmoniously as part of a community.

A dangerous new trend in underage drinking: nutcrackers

Odyssey House President Peter Provet comments on reports of an illegal cocktail known as a "nutcracker" being sold to teens. A nutcracker is a potent mix of fruit punch and alcohol, usually vodka or rum, being sold in bodegas and barbershops in Harlem and the Bronx. New York Daily News Reporter Simone Weichselbaum, who broke the story over the weekend, also interviewed teens in treatment at our adolescent facility about the ease with which minors can buy them. The full article can be read here.

The report caught the attention of other news outlets as well. WCBS News and WABC News talked to Dr. Provet about teen drinking. Watch the WCBS video (with transcript) and the WABC video to see what Dr. Provet has to say about this troubling trend.