Anti-drug messages aimed at kids are nothing new—most of today’s parents were children themselves when the first wave of “Just Say No” campaigns were launched in the 1980s. And in the last three decades or so, the efforts of parents, educators, communities and organizations such as Informed Families have made a noticeable and welcome dent in the problem of teen drug use. 

Still, much work still needs to be done to keep our kids safe and inspire them to make smart choices. The fact that teen drug use remains a problem might lead many to ask why, after all the campaigns, warnings and anti-drug efforts, do kids still choose to use drugs. The tempting answer might be, “They’re teens and don’t know better.” However, it’s not that simple. Below, we detail a variety of reasons why some kids use drugs in 2017.

Summertime! And for Florida parents with teens, often, the livin’ is not easy….

According to SAMHSA, more teenagers start drinking and smoking cigarettes and marijuana in June and July than in any other months. Parents, who are challenged enough to keep tabs of where their kids are and what they are doing between September and May, find it especially difficult to do so in June, July and August.

Raising in excess of $200,000 to support Informed Families' programs to help kids grow up safe, healthy and drug free across Florida, the 32nd Annual Informed Families Dinner at Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant was a tremendous success. Long-time supporters and event co-chairs Pam Giganti-Bunge & Alfred Bunge and Dr. Linda Neider & Dr. Paul Sugrue pulled out all the stops to make the dinner the best yet.

This year’s theme was "Communities that Care," reflecting the importance and power of communities in working together to stop the spread of drug use, especially the devastating current opioid epidemic.

Aside from Informed Families, the big winner of the night was dedicated supporter Sara Herald, who won the raffle for dinner for 20 guests at Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant. Guests enjoyed a wonderful street party prior to enjoying Joe's delicious stone crabs among old friends.

Informed Families has partnered with Joe’s Stone Crab Restaurant for over three decades to help keep children in South Florida and beyond safe, healthy and drug free. Many of the annual event attendees have regularly attended since the first dinner in 1985.

Parents, schools and communities often are hyper-focused on alcohol and illegal drug use, and rightfully so—these substances, when abused, can cause great harm to teenagers. Yet, this emphasis often causes parents to overlook another problem: over-the-counter (OTC) drug abuse.

When not able to secure booze or harder drugs such as marijuana or prescription pills, teens might turn to OTC medications to attempt a high. Or, kids might try chugging cough syrup or taking motion sickness pills thinking neither can hurt them; after all, these are medicines you can buy at the store.

The concept of student success often gets lost in the perception of student failures. Too often, the attitude of some people, many of whom do not currently have teens themselves, is that high schoolers are collectively disappointing parents, communities and society at large. This negativity isn’t new—just about every generation has engaged in its own “These kids!” moment—but in 2017, with social media and the digital age, it seems louder and our students definitely hear it.

Unfortunately, that message can discourage teens from striving for success and then more success. Little victories are overlooked; bigger accomplishments are diminished. For example, alcohol usage rates have been dropping for teens for a couple decades now, as much as a 60 percent difference since its peak in the 1990s. Yet the mistaken belief of many people is that high school students are out of control with drinking and parties.

According to the Florida Department of Education, there are approximately 200,000 high school seniors in our state. Most of those students will be graduating in the coming weeks. We want all of them to make it safely to the day after graduation…

Graduation is a time for celebration, but it can also be a dangerous time for students. The start of summer already has teens thinking about less responsibility and more fun; adding a milestone such as graduation to the mix gives many students an excuse to party more than they normally would. Unfortunately, in the process, these graduates might endanger their health and risk the safety of others. This can lead to tragedy for students right after one of the most significant achievements of their young lives.

You likely have seen the commercials from the Ad Council: “Buzzed Driving Is Drunk Driving.” This campaign is aimed at educating people that buzzed is synonymous with impaired, and if you are impaired, you shouldn’t be getting behind the wheel. The goal, of course, is to convince drinkers that if they are tipsy, rather than falling-down drunk, they are, in the eyes of the law, still under the influence and a danger to themselves, their passengers and others on the road.

This message is often difficult to impart to adults, who may think they are fine to drive even after several drinks. For teens, the task is even more challenging; many high schoolers already feel invincible, and many have little experience with how alcohol physiologically affects them.

There's still time to join the generous Joe's Dinner sponsors who are helping kids grow up safe, healthy and drug free while enjoying world famous stone crabs with friends, colleagues and family. The 32nd Annual Dinner at Joe's, co-chaired by Pam Gigante-Bunge & Alfred Bunge and Drs. Linda Neider and Paul Sugrue, will take place on May 15, 2017. Contact us about adding your name to this list of generous sponsors:

Colossal Claw Sponsors:

Baptist Health South Florida

Pam Giganti-Bunge & Alfred Bunge

Coral Gables Trust Company

EWM Realty International | Christie’s International Real Estate

Vicki Kress, this month's Star Ambassador, discovered Informed Families' Ambassador Program one day while searching for Lock Your Meds campaign resources. Familiar with the work of Informed Families, she was delighted to learn that the organization offers free year-round campaign materials provided to schools and organizations across Florida. She wasted no time and signed up right away to bring the four campaigns to Volusia and Flagler Counties.

“Environmental strategies, like the four universal campaigns, are extremely effective, as long as they are consistent, informative, eye catching and the whole community takes them on and makes them a priority,” says Kress. “Informed Families helps to provide the consistency that’s required – and we at Stewart-Marchman-Act Beahvioral Healthcare (SMA) have the capacity and drive to get everyone on the same page in our community.”

Kress serves as the Regional Prevention Director at SMA, which provides behavioral health care services to approximately 25,000 individuals each year, who are living with addiction, mental illness or both in Volusia, Flagler, St. Johns and Putnam Counties. SMA offers residential treatment for substance abuse and mental health in each of those counties. In her role, Kress focuses on the organization’s prevention services to families and schools throughout Volusia and Flagler County.

Parents of high schoolers worry about the parties their kids attend, and rightfully so. Drinking and drug use may occur at unsupervised parties; inebriated teens may get behind the wheel and endanger the lives of themselves, their passengers and innocent drivers; and alcohol poisoning, sexual assault or arrest are stark possibilities when minors drink to excess.

However, the image of a crazy high school party in which parents are on vacation and the whole school shows up for a kegger is a little overblown. Yes, the occasional party does approach out-of-control levels, but the majority of parties are smaller affairs, drawing no more than a few dozen kids, and perhaps even thrown with the blessing of parents who think teens will be safer if they drink in a supervised setting.