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High schools try to keep a public problem in perspective.
Thursday,September 01, 2005
The MHSAA walks a fine line in getting the word out about steroids. Nobody argues that steroids are good for athletes, and they're especially not good
for high school athletes.Not unless the big man on campus wants to risk
severe acne, shrunken testicles, mood swings and diminished height potential. Sounds like a winner, right?
The Michigan High School Athletic Association is trying to get that message
out to coaches, parents and athletes. It has made brochures, posters and videos available highlighting the dangers of steroid
use. Still, the message isn't a hard sell. It's more of a soft sell, a
gentle nudge that, yes, this is cheating and yes, this is not good for you and could kill you.
Survey Finds Drug Awareness in Middle Schools Is Sharply on the Rise
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 09/02/2005
A recent survey conducted by Columbia University revealed that twenty-eight percent
of middle-school-student respondents reported that drugs are used, kept or sold at their schools, a 47 percent jump since
2002, according to the 10th annual teen survey by Columbia's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.
"These statistics are a striking insight into the increasing number of children affected
by drugs in this country. We are prepared to assist parents throughout the country and be viewed as a partner in their fight
against drugs in their children's lives," stated Edward W. Withrow III, CEO of Addison-Davis Diagnostics, Inc.
According to the survey, twelve- to seventeen-year-olds who report that there are
drugs in their schools are three times likelier to try marijuana and twice as likely to drink alcohol than teens who say their
schools are drug free. "Availability is the mother of use," said Joseph Califano Jr., the center's president. "We really are
putting an enormous number of 12- to 17-year-olds at great risk."
Waiting to inhale: These days, teens are huffing, not puffing
Friday, September 16, 2005
For children ages 12 to 17, the nation's fastest-growing drug trend is cheap, accessible, little-known and found in their
own homes. Preteens are sniffing household chemicals found under the kitchen sink right under their parents' noses.
What
used to be called huffing has now become dusting. What used to be a novelty is now a serious problem.
Inhalant abuse has
been around for years: kids sniffing model-airplane glue or sucking the nitrous oxide out of whipped-cream cans.
But
recent reports of teen deaths from "dusting," or inhaling compressed air meant to clean computer keyboards, have brought inhalant
abuse and its alarmingly young demographic into view.
Consider this: Studies show the use of illegal drugs such as marijuana
and Ecstasy are falling; inhalants, however, are spiking.
According to the 2004 Monitoring the Future Survey conducted
by the University of Michigan, inhalants were one of only two substances to show a significant increase in use by teenagers
from 2003 to 2004 (Oxycontin, a prescription pain killer, was the other).
In March, a Cleveland police officer's son
was found dead in his bedroom, the straw from a can of Dust-Off hanging
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