Happiness a Weapon in the War on Drugs

New research shows that there may be practical reasons to seek out not only future happiness for children, but to take steps to ensure happiness while children are still at home. A study by researchers at UC Davis provides evidence for happiness as a deterrent for crime and drug use.

The research, presented August 22 at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, shows that happy adolescents report less involvement in crime and drug use than other youth surveyed. The report, titled "Get Happy! Positive Emotion, Depression and Juvenile Crime" is co-authored by Bill McCarthy, a sociology professor at UC Davis, and Teresa Casey, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis.

The researchers discovered that the emphasis placed on happiness by psychologists may have more widespread value than originally thought. There may be helpful strategies developed for the purpose of increasing childhood and adolescent happiness in order to deter nonviolent crime and drug use.

The researchers gathered data from nearly 15,000 seventh- to ninth-grade students from the 1995 and 1996 federally funded National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The survey is the largest and most comprehensive survey of adolescents ever conducted.

Studying the Effects of Happiness

The data revealed that approximately 29 percent of surveyed youth had committed at least one criminal offense, while 18 percent had tried at least one illegal drug. To understand how this correlates with happiness, the researchers then analyzed the respondents’ self-assessments of emotional well-being.

The authors of the study believe that their approach is unique because the effects of happiness are rarely studied, especially as they relate to juvenile crime. Most research has focused on the negative aspect of causes of behavior, such as how negative emotions like anger or rage lead to illegal behaviors.

McCarthy and Casey believe that their study’s findings support the role of positive emotions in choices about illegal behaviors. The authors argue that the benefits of happiness, such as a positive self-image and social bonds with others, can encourage healthy decision-making reinforced by positive emotions.

The results of their analysis show that happier adolescents were less likely to report a previous crime or drug use. Adolescents with a history of minor depression were significantly more likely to have engaged in crime or drug use.

More teens also are getting high on prescription pain pills and attention-deficit drugs, according to 8th-, 10th- and 12th-graders surveyed by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The Associated Press reports that the increase of teens smoking pot is partly because the national debate over medical use of marijuana can make the drugs seem safer to teenagers, researchers said. In addition to marijuana, fewer teens also view prescription drugs and Ecstasy as dangerous, which often means more could use them in the future, said White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske.

The "continued erosion in youth attitudes and behavior toward substance abuse should give pause to all parents and policy-makers," Kerlikowske said.

"These latest data confirm that we must redouble our efforts to implement a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to preventing and treating drug use," Kerlikowske, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in remarks prepared for his Monday speech at the National Press Club in Washington.

Marijuana use, while much lower than the peak levels of the late 1990s, has increased. According to the study of 47,097 students, 20.6 percent of 12th graders said they used it within the past month, compared with 19.4 percent in 2008 and 18.3 percent in 2006. Among 10th-graders, pot use in the past month rose to 15.9 percent this year from 13.8 percent in 2008.

In the past year, the share of eighth-graders who smoked pot was 11.8 percent, compared with 10.9 percent in 2008. Tenth-graders’ use was 26.7 percent this year and 23.9 percent in 2008. The percentage of 12th-graders was 32.8 percent compared with 32.4 percent in 2008.

"The upward trending of the past two or three years stands in stark contrast to the steady decline that preceded it for nearly a decade," said Lloyd Johnston, who has directed the annual survey since it started in 1975.

A group backing legalization of marijuana said the figures show the futility of trying to ban pot, rather than regulate its use.

"Clearly, regulation of tobacco products has worked to curb access by teens, and it’s time to apply those same sensible policies to marijuana," said Bruce Mirkin, spokesman for the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project.

Marijuana’s growing popularity is tied to how risky teens think it is. The percentage of eighth-graders who saw a "great risk" in occasionally smoking marijuana fell from 50.5 percent in 2004 to 48.1 percent in 2008 and 44.8 percent this year. The perceived danger of using Ecstasy once or twice fell among eighth-graders, from 42.5 percent in 2004 to 26 percent in 2009.

"When the perception of the danger goes down, in the following years you see an increase in use," said National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow.

Volkow said teens falsely believe that it’s less dangerous to get high on prescription drugs "because they’re endorsed by the medical community." But she said prescription narcotics like OxyContin and Vicodin are highly addictive and can act as gateways to heroin, a cheaper high.

Use of both prescription narcotics rose among this year’s 10th-graders, with 8.1 percent saying they had used Vicodin in the past year compared with 6.7 percent in 2008. For OxyContin, the figure rose to 5.1 percent from 3.6 percent.

Recreational use of the attention-deficit drug Ritalin was lower than five years ago. But the attention-deficit drug Adderall had figures similar to those for Ritalin at its peak, which for 12th-graders was around 5 percent.

Alcohol remained the most widely used illicit substance among teens, with 43.5 percent of 12th-graders reporting drinking alcohol in the past month. That’s a little change from the same period last year, but down from 52.7 percent in 1997—a year that showed high percentages of substance abuse. All three grades reported drops in binge drinking from 2004 to 2009.

Cigarette use continued its dramatic drop from a decade ago. In 1997, 19.4 percent of eighth-graders reported smoking within a month. That fell to 6.8 percent last year and 6.5 percent this year. The rate for 12th-graders dropped from 36.5 percent in 1997 to 20.1 percent this year.

"There’s not going to be much further improvement unless policies change," such as higher taxes to discourage kids on a budget and further limits on public smoking, Johnston said.

Only 2.4 percent of this year’s 12th-graders said they’d ever used methamphetamine, down from 2.8 percent in 2008 and 8.2 percent in 1999.

The risk of inhalants is much more well-known today, but is often still downplayed by those who believe their children are immune. Even worse, drug education programs – also known as drug awareness programs – did more than just educate kids to the dangers of drugs. At times, these programs actually showed kids just how easily they could get high.

A My High Plains piece focused on the choices of Kelli Crockett, who revealed that a middle school drug awareness program opened up the door to new highs for her. By 13, she was already drinking and smoking pot and in looking for a different high, found it in her cleaning cabinet at home.

According to government estimates, 17 percent of adolescents have tried inhalants at least once. As Ashley Kilpatrick, certified addiction counselor, points out, it is accessible. Finding products to deliver the high is extremely easy, yet most teens don’t understand the dangers inherent in these products.

Inhalants pose an extreme risk to users as they cut off oxygen to the brain. Even huffing just once can kill, although instances have been rare. And the signs are hard to notice, especially as many of them mirror normal teenage mood swings. For Crockett, it was an overdose that nearly took her life that finally got the attention of her parents. To best prevent such a scare, parents need to be real and they need to be watching.