Posted on October 12, 2009

In Pitt County, North Carolina, teens are more likely to use marijuana and alcohol than they are to smoke cigarettes, according to survey results reported by the Pitt County Substance Abuse Coalition.

Josh Humphries of the Daily Reflector writes that the Pitt County Substance Abuse Coalition recently conducted a survey of more than 6,000 students in grades 6-12 in Pitt County. The results will be used to create action plans with various community and government groups, said Margaret Blackmon, executive director of the Pitt County Substance Abuse Coalition.

Blackmon said that teens in the county perceive tobacco to be more risky than alcohol or marijuana and the perception of risk in general decreases as they get older.

“What we are finding is that kids are not smoking cigarettes as much as they are using alcohol and marijuana,” Blackmon said.

When asked how risky the students believe each substance to be, about 87 percent responded that tobacco is moderately or very risky compared to 73 percent for alcohol and 71 percent for marijuana.

Teens are exposed to more anti-smoking media than anti-drugs or alcohol media and perceive the risk of tobacco to be greater than marijuana or alcohol, Blackmon said.

Alcohol abuse is up in Pitt County compared to the rest of the nation. Comparing the new survey with data from 2003 shows that more Pitt County students are using alcohol, fewer are smoking cigarettes, and the numbers for marijuana are about the same.

Blackmon said it is important to know where students get dangerous substances, and that she was surprised to find that many get them from their parents.

About 31 percent of students said they got alcohol at home with their parents’ permission, and another 26 percent said they got marijuana the same way.

The teens also reported that parents disapprove more strongly of marijuana and cigarette use than alcohol use.

About 39 percent of high school students have consumed alcohol in the last 30 days compared to 26 percent who have used marijuana and 19 percent who have smoked a cigarette in the last 30 days, the survey results show.

Blackmon said that peer disapproval of substance abuse is not as high as it should be, and that the coalition will be working to create peer-to-peer programs for students in the county.

“We want to try to change the idea that everybody is doing it, because everybody is not,” she said. “We are trying to develop a core group of youth to take that message forward.”