Marblehead teens smoking less, drinking more

MARBLEHEAD – Smoking is down among Marblehead teens, but teen drinking remains higher than the state and national averages.Those are among the findings in a 2007 risk behavior survey of students in Grades 7-12. According to Lead Nurse Paula Dobrow, 90 percent of the seventh and eighth graders at the Marblehead Veterans Middle School and 76 percent of the students at Marblehead High took the survey.This was the fifth bi-annual survey given to students since 1997.Dobrow noted that 62 percent of eighth graders reported smoking at least once in their lives in 1997. This year that number is 11 percent, a big drop.But 54 percent of those eighth graders had tried alcohol at least once in their lives, an example of what Dobrow referred to as a “traditional” town statistic, and 6 percent of middle school students have tried marijuana.At Marblehead High the numbers increased.Thirty-seven percent of the high school students said they had smoked at least once in their lives, lower than the Massachusetts average of 51 percent, and 78 percent said it was very easy or somewhat easy to obtain tobacco.Seventy-six percent of Marblehead students said they had tried alcohol, which is on par with the state average. But among high school seniors that number increased to 90 percent, 80 percent said they had a drink within 30 days of taking the survey and 65 percent said they had tried binge drinking in the same period.The state average for binge drinking among students in Grades 9-12 is 27 percent. At Marblehead High it?s 37 percent for all four years.Forty-seven percent of Marblehead High students reported trying marijuana at least once – more than reported smoking – and 29 percent used marijuana during the past 30 days before they took the survey. Those numbers are comparable to the Massachusetts averages of 45 and 26 percent.Dobrow also noted that 12 percent of the high school students said they skipped school in the past 30 days because they felt unsafe, triple the state average, and 26 percent said they were bullied at school at least once in the past year.?We believe the survey results,” Superintendent of Schools Paul Dulac said. “Most alcohol use takes place at someone?s home. We request that parents take note. There?s no excuse for what?s happening, it needs to be dealt with at home and at school.”