Ray Bauer was the principal of Milford High School in Ohio. He cared so deeply about students that he even worried when they sat alone during lunch. Bauer passed away suddenly last August, but not before starting the Coalition for a Drug Free Milford-Miami Township.

"Since Bauer's sudden death in August the coalition, which is composed of local officials, students and school administrators, has continued to meet and recently launched a campaign designed to show teens and pre-teens that underage drinking isn’t as prevalent as they might believe," area newspaper The Community Press reported

Studies have found that 77 percent of teenagers don't drink -- and these students are the coalition's focus, the paper reported. The group has passed out flyers, is making t-shirts and wristbands to promote its message, and is developing sixth-grade-level curriculum about alcohol abuse and prevention.

Labels: community_programs, middle_school, ohio, prevention

Middle school students who use alcohol are more likely to attempt suicide than non-drinkers, according to a new study from Georgia State University.

• Researchers looked at the results of a survey of more than 150,000 students in the sixth, eighth, 10th, and 12th grades about their drug and alcohol use.
  
• About 15 percent said they started drinking before they were 13 years old.
  
• The group that started drinking before age 13 was at higher risk for suicide.

"The kids who start drinking early probably have problems in other parts of their lives, such as family dysfunction, mental health and anxiety, with family environment being the biggest driver" said Dr. Monica Swahn, associate dean for research in the College of Health and Human Sciences at GSU.

Labels: adolescence, alcohol, preteens, suicide

A study of laboratory animals found that cocaine changes the way genes in their brains work.

Dr. Ian Maze, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and author of the study, explained that genes are not just about heredity. They also regulate how cells in the body behave.

"When you give an animal a single dose of cocaine, you start to have genes aberrantly turn off and on in the strange pattern that we are still trying to figure out," he said.

Dr. Maze's study indicates that cocaine changes the region of the brain essential for experiencing pleasure and desire. This may partly explain why people get addicted to cocaine.

"This study is a major step in understanding the development of cocaine addiction and a first step toward generating ideas for how we might use epigenetic regulation to modulate the development of addiction," said Peter Kalivas, professor of neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina.

The study appeared in the journal Science.

Labels: brain_damage, cocaine

Keeping the legal drinking age at twenty-one years old may be a good idea, according to a new set of recommendations from Canada.

• Hubert Sacy, director general of the research team Educ'alcool, said that adolescents should not have access to alcohol because their brains are still developing.
  
• Adolescents and teens who drink alcohol are more likely to abuse the drug and put themselves in risky situations.
  
• Alcohol can adversely affect the development of a teenager’s organs, muscles and reproductive system, and can also negatively affect hormonal levels.
  
• In the new report, Stacy noted that people who start drinking in middle school are more likely to have problems with delinquency, emotional control and alcohol dependence by the time they are in their mid-twenties.

Labels: alcohol, canada, legal drinking age

In Hempfield Township, Pennsylvania, 11 high school students have been expelled this year due to drug use or possession. This has raised concerns about the prevalence of drugs in the community, according to a recent article on the WTAE website:

The drugs of choice seem to be suboxone – which is used to help wean addicts of heroin – and Adderall – used to treat ADD and ADHD. Westmoreland County detectives told Channel 4 Action News that prescription pain pills are extremely popular among high school students, and abusing them can be deadly.

The Hempfield school board plans to host a public forum Feb. 1, and others in the township have formed a committee to address the problem.

Labels: drugs, expulsion, schools

Minority boys who smoke are more likely to light up when they think they are being victimized by discrimination, according to a new study from Indiana University. The same does not hold true for minority girls.

Researchers studied 2,561 black and Latino teenagers, of which 12 percent were smokers.

"Boys and girls may experience discrimination differently due to where they spend their time, and that may account for the differences in whether discrimination was associated with increased smoking. The context of discrimination matters," according to the report, which was published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Labels: boys, discrimination, tobacco use

Teens who get drunk often or who use marijuana on a regular basis are more likely to be sexually active, according to a new study from Canada. The same study also found that sexually active girls are at higher risk for attempted suicide.

• Researchers used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth.
• They found that teens who use pot are 60 percent more likely to be sexually active.
• Teen who are regular drinkers are 50 percent more likely to be sexually active.

"Teens who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior," said Peter John Mitchell, a member of the research team. "This study reveals a risk profile that may help parents as they nurture their teens to adulthood."

Labels: marijuana, sex, teen_drug_use, teenage_drinking, teens

A new study using laboratory animals found that those were given steroids in adolescence were more aggressive as adults. One implication of this study is that teenagers who use steroids may do long-term harm to their bodies.

• Researchers at Michigan State University used two groups of male hamsters, giving one group steroids during adolescence and the other steroids in adulthood.
  
• Both groups showed more aggressive behaviors. However, the ones who got steroids during adolescence stopped using submissive behaviors altogether.
  
• The researchers could not find a single incidence of submissive behavior in these animals during adulthood.

The study appeared in the journal Behavioral Brain Research.

Labels: behaviors, brain_chemistry, steroids