During graduation season, we must pay attention to our youth’s substance use patterns. Recent research indicates that compared to national rates, youth in Maine are 47.44% more likely to have used drugs in the last month. Policymakers in the state need to implement better prevention methods to reduce teen substance use and the subsequent problems that come with it.

While some may believe that using substances as a teen is a normal part of growing up, many people do not understand the negative implications of substance use among teens. Research shows that 90% of people who have an addiction in the United States started using drugs or alcohol before the age of 18. Adolescent drug use negatively affects a teen’s life in many ways, leaving them vulnerable to academic failure, impaired neurocognitive development, high-risk sexual behaviors and an increased risk of overdose from illicit drugs. Youth with substance abuse issues experience higher rates of physical and mental illness.

Substance use as a teen can pave the way for a complicated and unfulfilling life.

One of the authors, Maliea, can speak from personal experience. Her father’s addiction started “harmlessly” with alcohol and marijuana use when he was a teenager. Like many others, he used drugs as a means to cope with his unhappy and traumatic childhood, but his substance use could not fill the void. The older he got, the stronger the drugs he used became. Never healing from his past or finding the peace he sought, he succumbed to his addiction and passed away from a fentanyl overdose at 35. Even while reeling from his death when she was just 15, Maliea recognized the need for a dramatic change.

We need to prevent what happened to Maliea’s dad from happening to countless others.

First, we want to highlight that delaying first-time use of substances can significantly reduce the chances of developing a drug or alcohol use disorder later in life. Researchers have found that teens who begin drinking before the age of 15 are seven times more likely to develop an alcohol use disorder as an adult compared to those who wait until they turn 18. To put this into perspective, the average age of adolescents using drugs for the first time is 13 to 14 years old. In the United States, underage drinking contributes to the three leading causes of death for adolescents aged 12 to 20: homicide, suicide and unintentional injury.

To start prevention efforts at home, parents must have open and honest conversations with their children about substances and their effects. Studies have shown that teens who learn about the risks of drugs from their parents are up to 50% less likely to use substances than teens who do not. Because many teenagers who use substances have poor mental health, parents should provide their kids with adequate support and encouragement. Other key ways parents can reduce or prevent their teen’s substance use are discussing ways to resist peer pressure; knowing their teen’s whereabouts; establishing clear boundaries and consequences, and setting a good example.

Additionally, there are many interventions and programs that we can enact in our schools and communities to enhance and support teens in their ability to avoid problematic substance use. These community-based approaches include building community coalitions, examining school-based policies, enhancing mental health resources and establishing after-school programs. Communities That Care is a research-based approach that uses a community coalition model to help guide communities in selecting and implementing evidence-based prevention programs to improve the health of their youth. Support from vital community members, such as the mayor, school superintendent and police chief, is needed to complete Communities That Care’s five-phase training and installation process. In communities where Communities That Care has facilitated the implementation of prevention programs, there were higher rates of sustained abstinence from substances, decreases in antisocial behavior and even improved college completion rates. These programs not only reduced the rates of teen substance use but also delayed first-time use.

Models like Communities That Care and similar community-based prevention programs are required tools to counteract the rising rates of teen substance use in the U.S. As we now know, the younger a person begins using substances, the more likely they are to develop substance use issues as an adult. To ensure the safety and overall well-being of our nation’s adolescents, we must engage community leaders to combat the normalized idea of teen drug use, work to delay first-time use as long as possible and improve and broaden the prevention practices already in place.

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