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The Coalition For A Safe & Drug-Free Fairfield focuses prevention efforts to our youth on underage drinking, marijuana use, and misuse of prescription and over-the-counter medicines. We care about the success and futures of our young people in Fairfield. We all agree that no mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, or friend wants to see their child or friend become an addict. Let’s stand up together to make OUR LIFE…safe and drug-free. Click on the links below to learn about problems associated with youth using drugs.

Underage Drinking

Marijuana Use

Abusing Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medicines

Underage Drinking

Alcohol is the drug of choice among Fairfield youth. Many of our young people are experiencing the consequences of drinking too much, at too early an age. The average age of onset of alcohol in Fairfield is 13. Alcohol is widely available and aggressively promoted throughout our community. According to our 2008 Fairfield Student Drug Use Survey, 49.2% of our youth reported that alcohol is easy to get.

Why is it that underage drinking is regarded as part of growing up when it is responsible for high numbers of alcohol-involved motor crashes, homicides, suicides, and many other injuries? Underage drinking also has other adverse consequences such as poor performance in school and job and risky sexual activity.

1. Alcohol can damage the brain. The brain goes through dynamic change during adolescence (age 12-21) and alcohol can seriously damage long and short-term growth processes.(American Medical Association Fact Sheet, 2003)

2. Alcohol kills. Alcohol kills more young people than all other illegal drugs combined.

3. More likely to become addicts. 40% of kids who begin drinking before the age of 15 will become alcohol dependant. (Grant, BF and Dawson, DA. Journal of Substance Abuse 9: 103-110. 1997) Research shows that addiction begins (and can be prevented) in adolescence:“A child who gets through age 21 without smoking, abusing alcohol or using illegal drugs is virtually certain never to do so.” (Joseph Califano, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, 2006)

4. More likely to experiment with other drugs. More than 67% of young people who start drinking before the age of 15 will try an illicit drug. They are 22 times more likely to use marijuana, and 50 times more likely to use cocaine. (SAMHSA 2005 “Start Talking before they start drinking”).

Sources/Underage Drinking Links

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa59/htm

www.alcoholpolicymd.com/pdf/brain3.pdf

What’s the problem with our youth smoking marijuana?

Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug among America’s youth. The marijuana that is available to teens today is much stronger than the marijuana that was available in the 1960’s. In Fairfield the average age of onset for marijuana is 13.4 years old. Seventy-seven percent of our youth believe that marijuana is harmful to them. As a community we need to continue to educate our youth on the harmful effects and continue to disapprove of use.

Besides being illegal, marijuana has many short-term effects such as problems with memory and learning, distorted perception, difficulty thinking and solving problems, impaired coordination, and increased heart rate. Long term users report less life satisfaction, poorer education and job achievement, and more interpersonal and mental health problems compared to non-users.(National Institute of Drug Abuse). For more information regarding short and long term effects of marijuana click on http://teens.drugabuse.gov.

Abusing Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medicines

Fairfield City School District school nurses have seen an emerging abuse of prescription drugs with students (anecdotal); 4.8% of 9-12 graders reported that they have taken a prescription drug such as Ritalin, Aadderall, or Xanax without a doctor prescription 10-40+ times during the past 30 days (2008 FSUS); Nationally, from 1995 to 2005, the number of teenagers treated for addiction to prescription pain relievers increased more than 300% (found in April 17, 2008 Join Together Newsletter); Estimated that one out of 10 teens nationwide — that’s 2.4 million kids from all backgrounds and geographic areas — say that they have taken cough remedies to get high. Data collected in 2008 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse for its Monitoring the Future study estimate the intentional abuse of cough medicine among eighth, tenth, and twelfth graders is 3.6 percent, 5.3 percent, and 5.5 percent, respectively. **FSUS = Fairfield Sudent Use Survey

For more information, see our Survey Results page.