teens and alcohol

Teens and alcohol

 Google Images

Prevention works, but what does it look like? You lock your doors. You schedule doctor and dentist visits. You exercise and eat healthy foods. You apply sun protection when outside. If you have a baby or toddler, you “baby proof” your home. If you have guns, you secure them. These are all examples of taking specific measures to prevent something bad from happening.

When it comes to the risks our youth take as they mature, prevention is relevant but often overlooked. It is easy to think that kids learn by allowing them to make mistakes, but some of those mistakes come with potentially life changing consequences. You wouldn’t let a young child cross a busy four lane road alone, would you? As adults, it behooves us to help protect the young people in our lives as they negotiate this journey called life. Where does that begin? Prevention is a community effort but begins in the home. The first step is talking with kids about issues they may face, whether it includes how to deal with stress, relationships, or substance use.

When it comes to substance use, tobacco was on the decline until electronic devices (aka vapes) hit the market. Nicotine is not the only thing being consumed in vapes. CBD, the non-psychoactive chemical found in cannabis, but also concentrated forms of marijuana are also being vaped. However, did you know that of all substances, alcohol is still the number one drug of choice among adolescents, partially due to the ease of access?

Regardless of what type of substance is used, these are mind-altering. Understanding of how early onset of alcohol, nicotine and other substances can impair the developing brain, lead to other risky choices and potentially to a substance use dependency later in life is critical to help inform and guide youth. By having these conversations as early and as frequently as possible so that the young people can make informed decisions is a first step in prevention. But we cannot stop at simply talking our way through and hope for the best.

The next step is ensuring that access to alcohol, prescription medications or other drugs, whether in the home or from somewhere else, is limited. People often tell me “My child knows better” or “I trust my child.” To which I say “Great! How about their friends? Do they know the rules in your home and do you know the rules of the friends’ parents?” Isn’t it worth asking and clarifying your expectations to protect your child? When it comes to securing alcohol, it does get more complex. Do you have a lockable cabinet in which to store alcohol, if you have any in the home? Do you keep more alcohol chilling in the refrigerator than might be consumed in an evening? A simply strategy could be to only have enough of whatever is the alcohol beverage of choice accessible that might be consumed at one time. For example, the recommendation from Center for Disease Control is 1 standard drink (12oz beer, 5 oz. table wine, or 8oz of craft malt beverage) per hour. According to the CDC, “Dietary Guidelines for Americans defines moderate drinking as up to 1 drink per day for women and up to 2 drinks per day for men.” This means for

example, if you drink beer or a malt beverage, you shouldn’t have more than 3 chilling in your refrigerator per day. This drastically reduces the amount that should be consumed in a given day and would be very easy to keep track if anything were missing.

In addition to securing alcohol products in the home to reduce is access, we must also look at accessibility of prescription or over the counter medications which have the potential for being abused. This is imperative as we continue to see addiction to prescription medications, not just opioids, on the rise. If you have medications, how do you store them? Are they in a lockable box or cabinet to reduce access? Orange Partnership for Alcohol and Drug Free Youth and Insight Human Services have been providing free lock boxes to those in need, but medication lock boxes are also available at local pharmacies. Another preventive measure is to safely dispose of unwanted or expired medications at any one of the permanent drop boxes at the Hillsborough Pharmacy, Walgreens, or Orange County Sheriff’s Office, or by using home chemical disposal kits such as Dispose Rx.

These steps all serve to reduce access to substances in the home, but we have opportunities to act as a community as well. We still need to make sure those who are of legal age are not purchasing for or selling alcohol to those under 21. If charged, they could face consequences such as fines, court costs and other ramifications. Prior to the pandemic, many of our local retailers (96%) selling alcohol products were demonstrating greater consistency in checking identification of those purchasing alcoholic beverages. This preventive measure reduced access by those under the legal age of 21 to alcohol. Unfortunately, since the pandemic, that rate has drastically fallen to an average of 64%, based on alcohol purchase surveys.

Recently the federal law changed to require those purchasing tobacco to be 21, but that is still not the case in North Carolina. How easy is it for those 18 and under to get tobacco and/or vapes? Are businesses even verifying age of consumer making the purchase? And as the landscape around cannabis changes, we will need to keep in mind how to keep youth safe and prevent early initiation of use, so that their brains can fully develop. As legislation is being considered, what legislation will be put into place to protect youth? As a community, we all can do our part to increase protective factors that promote healthy environments in which our youth can thrive at home, in the community, at school and at work. What are you doing?

Gayane Chambliss is Program Director of Orange Partnership for Alcohol and Drug-Free Youth Orange Partnership is a community collaborative to foster healthy communities in which Orange County youth can thrive without the influence of substances. To learn more, visit www.orangepartnership.org