Teenage consumption goes up with warm weather

Published 9:02 am Thursday, April 9, 2009

With spring comes breaking the bonds of winter and being able to get back outside and move around more freely for many. Sadly, one of the things that increase during this time is the use of alcohol among teens.

Teenagers use alcohol for three primary reasons says Ron Gonzales, a 22-year veteran of the Chemical Dependency Center of Freeborn County.

“The thing that stays the same,” Gonzales said, “Is the fact that teens are curious, they want to fit in and for others it is that they are just trying to cope with life.”

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For Gonzales and the others at CDC, they make themselves first and foremost available to help people of all ages — especially teens — deal with the problems of chemical dependency.

Chemical dependency, especially that of alcohol use, has been on a steady rise over the years and with the latest turn of the economy, those who work in the field of chemical dependency, fear that it may not get better anytime soon.

The second thing that Gonzales shared that they do at CDC is to assess the need of each individual that comes to them.

Another change that CDC has seen over the years is much of the glamorizing of the drug culture on the television.

The advent of the Internet has also given teens the opportunity to go online and learn not only how bad drinking and drugs are, but they can also learn how to make their own.

He said as much as some things stay the same within a culture the fast-changing landscape is beginning to show up as more and more teens are not growing up in a traditional family.

More and more kids can see themselves as athletes and using drugs as so many of the professional athletes are confessing to having led lives of drug use during their playing days.

The third thing that CDC offers is professional and licensed counselors.

Teens are bombarded from more than just one direction in the 21st century.

Up until recently, peer pressure was cited as the single most determining factor in a teen’s use of alcohol. Now experts are saying that more and more teens are using it to cope and to escape the hassles of life.

According to the U.S. Surgeon General, more than 40 percent of teens who admitted drinking said they drink when they are upset, 31 percent said they drink alone, 25 percent said they drink when they are bored, and 25 percent said they drink to “get high.”

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, binge drinking is up among teens.

In 2007, more than one-fifth (23.3 percent) of persons aged 12 or older participated in binge drinking at least once in the 30 days.

Another staggering statistic is that each year, students spend $5.5 billion on alcohol, which is more than they spend on pop, tea, milk, juice, coffee and books combined, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

But with all the bad news that is out there about today’s youth and alcohol, there are some good signs:

Nearly one-third of college students surveyed said they wished alcohol was not available at campus events, and nearly 90 percent wished that other drugs would disappear from campuses, according to a Core Institute study.