DFC youth survey

Published August 1, 2019

By JILLIAN STRING

NORTH READING — Nearly 1,050 students in grades 6-12 participated in the third annual Drug-Free Communities (DFC) core measurement survey, which showed a decline in past 30-day substance use across most areas, DFC Program Director Amy Luckiewicz reported to the School Committee Monday night.

In 2016, the North Reading Youth Substance Use Prevention Coalition, a committee that is part of the Community Impact Team, was awarded a grant from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The award provides $625,000 in DFC grant funds, over five years, to involve and engage the local community in preventing substance use among youth.

The DFC grant, now in its third year, requires that a student survey be administered annually to measure the use and perceptions of risk associated with alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and prescription drugs.

For the second consecutive year, the Community Impact Team (CIT) also added vaping to the survey to learn more about trends in this area.

To fulfill the grant requirements, the survey must gather data pertaining to past 30-day use, peer approval, perceptions of risk or harm, and parental approval.

“These are the questions that the federal government, for lack of a better term, grades us on to see if we are moving in the trend of decreased use,” Luckiewicz said.

The survey was administered to students in the spring of 2019.

NRMS data

North Reading Middle School data showed a decrease in the past 30 days in all four areas among seventh-graders for alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and prescription drug use. Among members of the class of 2024, these figures decreased from 6.3% in 2018 to 2.9% in 2019 for alcohol use; 4.8% to 2.1% for tobacco use; 5.5% to 2.2% for marijuana use; and 6.2% to 2.2% for prescription drug use.

Data for the class of 2023 (eighth-graders) showed a decrease in past 30-day use of alcohol (2.5% to 1.8%), and an increase in the use of both marijuana (1.2% to 3.0%) and prescription drugs (1.2% to 1.8%). Past 30-day use of tobacco remained the same at 1.2% across both years.

The class of 2025 (sixth-graders), which took the survey for the first time in 2019, reported 2.9% past 30-day use for alcohol, 0.8% for tobacco, 1.5% for marijuana, and 2.2% for prescription drugs.

Vaping stats

Vaping data not only tracked past 30-day use, but use of various products over the past year as well.

Class of 2024 data revealed a significant decrease in past 30-day use of vaping products (6.9% in 2018 to 2.9% in 2019), however increases were noted in vaping nicotine, non-nicotine, and marijuana over the past year (1.4% to 2.9%; 1.4% to 5.1%; and 0.7% to 1.5%, respectively).

Data for the class of 2023 showed an increase across all areas concerning vaping. Eighth-graders reported an increase from 2.5% to 5.4% for past 30-day use; 0.0% to 6.6% for vaping nicotine over the past year; 1.2% to 2.5% for vaping non-nicotine over the past year; and 0.0% to 3.6% for vaping marijuana over the past year.

The class of 2025 reported 0.7% had used vaping products over the past 30 days and 0.7% had vaped nicotine over the past year and none reported vaping either non-nicotine products or marijuana over the past year.

“Vaping tends to be the most popular substance across most ages,” Luckiewicz said.

According to Luckiewicz, traditional cigarette use is also on the rise nationally due to the popularity of vaping.

“Nationally, we’re starting to see conventional cigarette use go back up because of vaping, which sounds a little counterintuitive, but the way it works is if you’re building the brain with pathways to nicotine, and you vape inside, you smoke outside, and we’re starting to see that across all ages, including adults,” Luckiewicz said.

Despite noted increases as students age, overall trends in the past 30-day use of alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drugs are on the decline. For example 7.1 percent of eighth graders reported using alcohol in 2018, while only 1.8 percent of eighth-graders reported using alcohol in 2019.

NRHS data

At the high school, the class of 2020 and the class of 2021 reported decreases in past 30-day use of tobacco (4.6% to 2.8% and 6.3% to 4.1%, respectively).

The survey noted increases in past 30-day use across all other grades and substances, with the class of 2019 reporting the most significant changes (21.2% to 43.4% for alcohol; 4.2% to 9.7% for tobacco; 17.0% to 31.9% for marijuana; and 4.2% to 6.1% for prescription drugs.

Past 30-day use of vaping products decreased for the class of 2022 from 12.0% to 9.0%, however increases were noted for the other three classes.

Increases in vaping nicotine, non-nicotine, and marijuana increased significantly across all four grades at NRHS over the past year.

• The Class of 2019 reported an increases from 12.6% to 38.4% for vaping nicotine; 4.2% to 26.6% for vaping non-nicotine; and 5.0% to 42.5% for vaping marijuana.

• The Class of 2020 reported an increases from 13.6% to 29.8% for vaping nicotine; 9.0% to 14.2% for vaping non-nicotine; and 3.8% to 23.2% for vaping marijuana.

• The Class of 2021 reported increases over last year as 8.8% to 23.4% for vaping nicotine; 2.4% to 15.6% for vaping non-nicotine; and 1.6% to 14.8% for vaping marijuana.

• The Class of 2022 also reported an increases over last year from 5.4% to 13.9% for vaping nicotine; 3.9% to 6.7% for vaping non-nicotine; and 0.6% to 6.0% for vaping marijuana.

Student perception

The perception of risk or harm varied across grade levels, with younger students perceiving more risk associated with each substance.

Overall data for parental approval showed that students feel their parents disapprove of substance use, however this percentage decreased as students grew older.

The self-identifying average age of first use varied slightly from the 2018 data. For alcohol use, the average age decreased from 16 to 15 years; tobacco use average age increased from 14 to 17 years; marijuana remained the same at 16 years; prescription drugs remained the same at 15 years.

The age of first use for vaping marijuana, vaping nicotine and vaping non-nicotine products all decreased from 16 to 15 years.

Students reported that the most popular place to use substances was while unsupervised at a friend’s house.

According to Luckiewicz, the most effective means of prevention is to advocate for policy changes regarding different substances with the Board of Health.

The Community Impact Team will continue to work with the schools to uncover additional prevention strategies and decrease risk factors, she stated.

The core measurement survey will be conducted again in the spring of 2020.

School Committee response

Luckiewicz noted that when the current grant expires in 2021, the district will be able to apply for a continuation grant for another five years.

Committee Chairman Scott Buckley asked Luckiewicz if the district would be more likely to receive additional funding if it could show a decrease in student substance use.

The ONDCP “is really focused on how you answer the questions. You get scored out of a score of 100, and if you happen to write your grant in a year that everybody does a great job writing the grant, you’re less likely (to receive funding),” Luckiewicz said. “It’s not dependent upon how you did with decreasing numbers.”

At the end of the meeting, Luckiewicz presented Superintendent Jon Bernard with a Certificate of Recognition from the CIT’s North Reading Youth Substance Use Prevention Coalition for all of the hard work being done in the North Reading Public Schools toward changing attitudes and behaviors regarding substance use.