New campaign urges parents to talk to kids about marijuana

Recently, University of Washington researchers found that only 57 percent of Washington parents in a survey knew the legal age for recreational pot use.  

A new campaign to educate parents about the law and the importance of talking to children about marijuana recently was launched by Prevention WINS, the PEACE Coalition, and other stakeholders in Seattle. Three physicians from Seattle Children’s Hospital are featured in the campaign. With an increase in the number of Poison Center calls for teenagers who have consumed too much marijuana, physicians are particularly concerned.  

Parents are the number one influence on children, even in their teen years, so it’s important to know the law when talking to children about it. Research also shows that it is important for adults to help children develop the social and emotional skills needed to avoid drug use. For more than 20 years prevention programs have rejected scare tactics and have been providing parents with advice about promoting healthy decision-making among teenagers. With mixed messages children are receiving about risks associated with teenagers using marijuana, these parenting skills are more important than ever.  

For the record, it is legal only for people 21 years old and above to use marijuana in Washington.  
What else do parents and teenagers need to know about the law?

• Legal products include foods and beverages with marijuana in them.Some of these products may be attractive to youth and mistaken for common food and beverages. Examples include candy, soft drinks, and baked-goods.

• It is illegal for people under 21 to drive under the influence of any amount of marijuana.  

• The new law allows marijuana advertising. Be aware of marijuana advertising that your child is exposed to online, in magazines and newspapers, and in the community. Talk about the ads and the messages they send, especially if ads use images of young adults. Use these talks to stress your family rules about not using drugs, including marijuana.

• It is illegal for adults to provide marijuana to people under the age of 21, including parents giving their own children marijuana (unless they have a medical marijuana authorization.)  

• It is illegal to grow marijuana at home unless a medical marijuana authorization is obtained.  

• It is illegal to consume (smoke, eat, drink) marijuana products in public.

Parenting risk factors decrease as community risk factors increase

Last week, a reporter from the LA Times interviewed three members of the Adolescent Substance Abuse Program (ASAP) here at Seattle Children’s Hospital, including me.   The main article focuses on marijuana legalization and how parents in Washington are talking to their kids about it.  Two other articles focus on what parents and teenagers should know. 

The main article points out that there has been an increase in youth marijuana use among NE Seattle teenagers.  Though the article mostly focuses on parenting, the risk factors associated with parenting and youth drug use have gotten better in NE Seattle since 2006.  Most of the Prevention WINS coalition’s work focuses on increasing parenting skills proven to prevent teen drug use.

Source: WA Healthy Youth Survey

Despite parenting risk factors decreasing in NE Seattle, marijuana use rates have steadily increased.  Why?  The Healthy Youth Survey tells us that community-related risk factors have increased during the same time period. 

Source: WA Healthy Youth Survey

While parent education remains a priority for Prevention WINS, and evidence-based prevention programs will continue to be offered to middle school students, the need to address community risk factors is evident.  When the larger community discusses youth marijuana use prevention, they often focus on parenting.  However, as our local data seem to indicate, prevention needs to include the wider community. 

Access to marijuana needs to be addressed.  Community norms need to be addressed.  Enforcement of underage laws needs to be addressed.  The Prevention WINS coalition cannot address the multiple risk factors associated with youth drug use alone.  Individuals and organizations throughout Seattle need to step up and address the factors they influence.  

Parents connecting with parents important for preventing teen drug use

Most people know that teaching parents how to guide their children so that they make healthy decisions is part of a multi-pronged strategy for preventing adolescent drug use.  But what does that mean?  What can parents actually do?

One thing that parents can do is connect with other parents.  Making connections with the parents of your child's friends opens up opportunities to discuss views on teen drug use.  Many parents are surprised to find out that the vast majority of parents think that teen drug use is unacceptable, even in high school.  In fact, when Prevention WINS conducts surveys among NE Seattle parents, more than 90% agree that teenagers should not use drugs, including alcohol.

Connecting with other parents also makes it easier to monitor your child.  It makes it easier to call another parent to make sure your child is at a friend's house and that there are no drugs, including alcohol, available.

In the video below, Dr. Leslie R. Walker from Seattle Children's Hospital talks about why connecting with other parents is important.

  

The beginning of a school year provides many opportunities for parents to connect with one another.  Curriculum nights, PTSA-sponsored socials, and sporting events are just a few opportunities during which parents can easily connect with others.  

A parent's guide to preventing underage marijuana use

This week, Prevention WINS released Now that marijuana is legal in Washington . . . A parent’s guide to preventing underage marijuana use. 

The booklet is written by Dr. Leslie Walker, Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and Dr. Kevin Haggerty, Associate Director of the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington.  Dr. Walker is a leader in adolescent medicine, especially adolescent substance abuse, and Dr. Haggerty is a leader in adolescent substance abuse prevention. 

The booklet includes information about:

~ Marijuana and teen health.

~ What parents can do to prevent teen marijuana use.

~ What the new law means for minors.

The goal of the booklet is to provide parents of children in grades 6-8 with tools they can use to prevent underage marijuana use.  Messages are prevention-oriented and are similar to what parents learn in Guiding Good Choices.  

The booklet is not a drug education resource.  It does not contain information about specific types of marijuana products.  A good source for drug education resources is the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute's marijuana website and clearinghouse. 

Page 8 of the guide includes a few resources that parents may access for more information.  It is by no means an exhaustive list and it focuses on NE Seattle.  It was intentionally kept short so that people could write in or affix stickers with their local resources.    

For more information about the booklet, please contact the Prevention WINS coordinator.

Why preventing underage drinking is important

Earlier this year, Prevention WINS launched a video for parents about how to prevent underage drinking.  Excerpts from that video, featuring Dr. Leslie Walker, are now available on YouTube.  Here is one of them.

Prevention WINS launches short videos for parents

This summer, the Prevention WINS parent outreach & education workgroup has been preparing for the upcoming school year to increase awareness among NE Seattle parents about how to prevent underage drinking and marijuana use and prescription drug abuse.

In collaboration with Roam Editorial, the workgroup developed short video clips featuring Dr. Leslie Walker, Chief of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children's Hospital.  Here's one of them.

Eventually, all six brief videos will be posted to the Prevention WINS YouTube page, making it easy for community members and organizations to share them on their Facebook pages, websites, and blogs.

What recent research tells us about parenting, young adult DUI, and early initiation of alcohol use

White young adults “were 50% more likely to self-report DUI than blacks, Hispanics, or Asians,” according to Driving After Drinking Among Young Adults of Different Race/Ethnicities in the United States: Unique Risk Factors in Early Adolescence? appearing in the May 2013 edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health.  “Black adolescents appear the least likely to DUI as young adults.”

The articles goes on to say, “In additions, perception of easy home access to alcohol had a strong association with DUI for whites, Hispanics, and Asians . . . In 2010, among current drinkers aged 12 to 20 years old, 21.6% reported that they obtained their last use of alcohol in the past month from a parent, guardian, or other family member.  Therefore, the household environments, such as parental alcohol use, play a key independent role in shaping adolescent drinking behaviors.  In a previous study, adolescents with parents who drink or whose parents DUI are also more likely to DUI.  Our study suggests that perceived home access to alcohol is a strong predictor of DUI for all races/ethnicities, except for blacks.”

  

Childhood risk factors for early-onset drinking, published in the September 2011 Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, describes a study that examined potential risk factors for the initiation of alcohol use at age 14 or younger.  The researchers found that “the variables most-predictive of early-onset drinking were having a single parent, sipping-or tasting alcohol by age 10, having parents who also started drinking at-an early age, and parental drinking frequency.”

Teens, Marijuana & Alcohol: Setting the Framework for Healthy Communication

Marijuana businesses will open within the next year.  Grocery stores now sell spirits.

In 2010, 68% of Seattle 10^th graders reported that they had never tried marijuana and 78% reported that they do not currently use marijuana.

What can parents do to support most Seattle students who do not use drugs but live in communities where alcohol and marijuana are more available?

Teens, Marijuana & Alcohol: Setting the Framework for Healthy Communication

Tuesday, January 15, 7-8:30p.m.

Nathan Hale High School Commons

Hosted by Raiders Against Destructive Decisions (RADD)

Thursday, January 17, 7-8:30p.m.

Roosevelt High School Library

Hosted by the Roosevelt High School PTSA

Please use the south entrance along NE 66^th Street.

Both of these events are free and open to the public.

For more information, contact the Prevention WINS coordinator.

The new marijuana law and family discussions

From Parents advised to talk to teens about new marijuana law (HeraldNet):

Parents need to have clear rules that kids understand about drug and alcohol use, Walker said. "It's OK to say zero tolerance; we don't accept you using alcohol or drugs."

Some parents feel uncomfortable adopting such household rules, she said, recalling that they didn't follow this advice regarding marijuana when they were younger.

The strains of marijuana now available are much stronger than in the past, she said. Kids can have anxiety or panic attacks after ingesting edibles, or food infused with marijuana, she said.

There's no way to know which kid will experiment with marijuana just one time and who will struggle with life-long dependence, Walker said.

"If they try it as adults, they're less likely to be dependent on it," she said. 

What parents can say to their children about marijuana

From Seattle Children's Hospital:

Marijuana becomes legal in Washington state on Thursday, and a commercial marijuana market is on the horizon. Dr. Leslie Walker, chief of adolescent medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital and president elect for the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, says that now’s the time for parents to talk with their children – especially teens – about the consequences of marijuana use.


“High school students who smoke marijuana report that they started between the ages of 13 -14,” says Dr. Walker, “So conversations need to start early.”

Read more at the Teenology blog.

"Family Checkup" helps parents prevent teen drug abuse

Family Checkup, an online resource that equips parents with research-based skills to help keep their children drug-free, recently was launched by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) .

NIDA-funded research has shown the critical role parents play in preventing their children from using drugs. Family Checkup poses questions for parents to consider as they interact with their children; highlighting parenting skills that are important in preventing the initiation and progression of drug use among youth. The resource incorporates video examples that show parents how-to and how-not-to emulate each skill with their own children.

Here is one of the videos included in the Family Checkup:

Short YouTube videos for parents a great resource for promoting healthy youth development

Over on the Prevention WINS Facebook page, I've been posting videos from the YouTube DrugFree Channel.  The videos are for parents who want to learn how to prevent substance abuse among their teenage children.  Each video is less than two minutes long.

Here is one about setting standards and creating a supportive family environment:

These videos are a great resource for organizations that support healthy youth development.  The videos are short and easy to share on Facebook pages, blogs, and websites.

For parents: another problem with drinking in high school

The Partnership at Drugfree.org recently released a series of online videos to help parents prevent underage drinking and drug use among their children.  Here is one entitled "Another Problem with Drinking in High School".

How parents influence adolescent substance abuse

While I was doing some research for the Social Marketing Workgroup's (SMW) action plan, I found a report entitled, "Family Ties: How Parents Influence Adolescent Substance Abuse".  It clearly explains why certain parenting practices are effective in preventing youth substance abuse.

One of the parenting practices that the SMW will be promoting is monitoring teenage children.  According to the report:  Support and control have been identified by researchers as two complementary components of parenting (Barnes and Farrell, 1992). The construct of support includes areas such as nurturance, attachment, acceptance, and love, whereas the construct of control includes discipline, supervision, and monitoring. Monitoring has further been defined as parental knowledge of their child’s companions, whereabouts, and activities . . . High levels of parental monitoring are associated with low frequencies of drinking and illicit drug use.
 
According to community parent surveys conducted by Prevention WINS in 2008 and 2010, while NE Seattle parents talk to their children about not using alcohol and/or marijuana, many do not monitor their teenage children. 

Coalition's Parenting Social Norms Workgroup to meet March 22

This poster is part of the social norms campaign for parents developed by the Kelso STOP coalition.  It reflects their true community norm that most parents talk to their children about not drinking alcohol.

The Prevention WINS Parenting Social Norms Workgroup will meet tomorrow, Tuesday, March 22, 7PM at Seattle Children's Hospital.  Anyone who is interested in developing a social norms campaign for northeast Seattle parents to prevent youth substance abuse is welcome to participate.

Want more information about what the social norms approach to youth substance abuse prevention is all about?  Check out this video of Dr. Wesley Perkins explaining the social norms approach.

Talking to your children about alcohol and other drugs

Talking with teens about alcohol and drinking can be difficult for parents -- but emergency room doctors and MADD just made it a little easier.

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) teamed up with MADD to create and release a new, free handbook as part of MADD's "Power of Parents, It's Your Influence" campaign.

The handbook is part of the lead-up to PowerTalk 21 Day, scheduled for April 21, a national day for parents to talk to their teens about alcohol.

Other online resources for parents are Parents - The Anti-Drug and Start Talking Now.

Positive parenting resources

The first Parenting Workgroup meeting under the coalition's new DFC grant was held last week and we spent a good deal of time talking about circulating positive parenting messages throughout our community.

To determine what type of campaigns already exist, I visited Parents: The Anti-Drug and found some good resources for community's working with parents, including this poster:




If you are interested in participating in the Parenting Workgroup, keep an eye on the coalition calendar for a meeting date in February.

ER visits related to underage drinking spike on New Years Day

I don't want to end 2010 on a down note, but I do want to share a timely story I read on HealthDay this morning.

The number of emergency department visits that involved underage drinking jumped by more than 250 percent on New Year's Day two years ago, compared with other days of the year, a new U.S. study reveals.

Researchers with the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that an estimated 1,980 emergency visits on Jan. 1, 2009, had something to do with underage drinking. The national average for such visits during the year as a whole was 546 per day.

Compared with other national holidays, the number of admissions on New Year's Day linked to underage drinking was 191 percent higher than on Memorial Day and 110 percent higher than on the Fourth of July, the researchers explained.

The article ends with a link to Make a difference: Talk to your child about alcohol. Other parenting resources are linked on the Prevention WINS website.

Teens, drinking and your parenting style

Call it the Goldilocks approach to parenting.

New research shows which parenting style works best to keep a teenager away from the most dangerous type of alcohol use. Scientists surveyed 5,000 teens, ranging from 7th- to 12th-grade, on their drinking habits and their home life.

Results show a parenting style that isn't too strict or too permissive works best to prevent binge drinking. Why? Teens have boundaries and consequences and have opportunities to use own judgment.

Story on NPR.

Good parenting practices can be a long-lasting gift

A coalition member recently shared the following with me:

Youth who are characterized as impulsive risk takers are known to be at increased risk for alcohol use and dependence over their lifetimes. For them, deliberate family management practices have been shown to disrupt the relationship between youth risk and adult alcohol use.

Research conducted by the Social Development Research Group of over 800 youth and reported in Drug and Alcohol Dependence (2010) shows that specific family management practices in early adolescence protect against the effects of impulsive risk taking on alcohol abuse and dependence in adulthood.

Good family management is expressed in multiple ways:

-- Consistent parental monitoring to know where and whom the adolescent child is with.

-- Clear family rules.

-- Norms that guide social activities are understood and discussed calmly between parent and child.

These findings support the use of interventions that strengthen family management in early adolescence, particularly for youth who are prone to impulsive, risk-taking behavior. Read the research brief, Family Management Matters: Adolescent Risk Taking and the Development of Adult Alcohol Use Disorders.

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Note: Strengthening Families, a program the helps parents develop good parenting practices, will be offered at Eckstein Middle School in the new year. Information about the program will be posted on this blog and on the Prevention WINS website.