Drugs & Kids

Start talking about drugs early…

We need to start talking with our children when they are very young. Drug use is part of everyday life. Sometimes we forget that cough syrup, headache pills, and other medications are also drugs. At a very early age, children begin to learn that taking a pill or other drug can make them feel better. They learn this from television and from our own example. There are many opportunities to teach the safe use of medications when they are very young.

…and keep the conversation going as they grow older.

Children will have to make decisions about their own use of these drugs throughout the adolescent and later teenage years. Understand that children can go through some very difficult friendship changes that can affect their moods and behaviour. Keep the communication lines open. Set your limits about what really matters for their health and safety, and what really counts in terms of your own values, and then give your children some room to be themselves.

Download YRDSB’s pamphlet What Parents Need to Know and Do: Drugs and Kids (PDF 379 KB).

Some Facts About Drugs

From the Ontario Student Drug Use Survey, 2003 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)

• Alcohol is the number one drug choice among teens.
• 66% of students from grades 7 to 12 have used alcohol in the past year and almost 41% of Grade 11 students have reported binge drinking.
• The average age of first alcohol use is 13.
• Cannabis (or marijuana or hash) is the number two drug of choice among teens.
• Average age of first cannabis use is 14.
• Almost 30% of students reported using cannabis in the previous 12 months and 51% of students say that cannabis is easy or very easy to get.
• 23% of teens report being a passenger in a vehicle driven by someone using drugs other than alcohol.
• 29% of students report being a passenger in a vehicle driven by someone who had been drinking.