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Survey says Crawford only doing 'fair job' in battling substance abuse
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| | Lee Cable | write the author | |
January 30, 2008
Crawford
County was the focus of a recent public opinion survey that found that
the majority of respondents believed that the county was only doing a
"fair" job of addressing substance abuse.
The survey, by Leigh
Drake of Aranelle Consulting LLC., was sponsored by the Crawford County
Council for a Drug-Free Community and took place from Nov. 1 to Nov. 30.
Several results of the survey were surprising and some were even shocking to many on the council.
"There's
a few things in the survey that caught my eye," Jon Kuss, chairman of
the council and director of programs with Hoosier Hills PACT. "One of
the things in the survey that really jumped out at me was that 35
percent of respondents thought that 'several' adults in the area use
drugs or drink with their children. That's really disturbing. It's not
uncommon for that to happen, but it's certainly bothersome that it
happens on that level."
The survey also produced some expected
results, such as that 61 percent of those surveyed thought that "many"
had tried cigarettes. It was also revealed that 28 percent thought that
"many" had tried chewing tobacco. If all responses were combined
(several-half-many), the survey indicated that 80 percent of those
believed that youth had tried chewing tobacco.
"This survey was
designed for Crawford County," Drake said, after completing the survey.
"And there's certain parts of it that are really striking. For
instance, 68 percent of respondents said they had experienced
alcoholism or a drug addiction situation in their family. That's a high
amount, and it's really a painful reminder of how big the problem is.
It also gives the community an idea of what direction needs to be taken
in order to reduce these numbers."
Another issue that caught
Kuss' eye was that such a high number of those responding thought that
"many" of the county's youth had tried marijuana.
"If you
combine all of the responses, 80 percent thought that area young people
had tried marijuana," he said. "That's a really high number, but that's
the value of this survey. It actually puts a number to the things that
we have always suspected."
The survey, however, indicated that
harder drugs, like heroine, cocaine, methamphetamine, inhalants and
club drugs, like ecstasy, are not popular with area youth. But other
parts of the survey indicated that the use of beer, strong alcohol and
painkillers is a problem.
"Prescription drugs are a growing
problem here," said Becky Smith of the Crawford County Youth Service
Bureau. "We're actually doing a lifeskills program on it now. We're
showing the students films and educating them about the dangers of
prescription drugs. We're trying to get ahead of it, but it is a major
issue now."
The survey included responses from 117 people in
Crawford County. There were 73 female respondents and 44 male
respondents. The majority of respondents (42) were 25 and under. There
were 19 respondents between the ages of 25 and 35. The rest were over
35, but only eight were 75 or older.
The top troubling issues
for youth in Crawford County were tobacco use, drug use, alcohol use,
sexual activity, teen pregnancy, under-age drinking, poverty, lack of
jobs, nothing to do, domestic violence/child abuse, not enough options
for entertainment and reckless driving.
The survey noted that
reckless driving scored higher than operating while intoxicated or
speeding on the issues list. The survey also noted that respondents
aged 25 and under thought teen pregnancy a more troublesome issue than
sexual activity, while adults primarily scored sexual activity as more
troublesome than teen pregnancy.
More than 40 percent of
respondents thought the community was doing a fair job of addressing
abuse in the community, while only 18 percent thought it was doing a
good job. The remainder didn't know or thought it was doing a poor job.
Except
for Alcohol Anonymous and Narcotic Anonymous, most respondents thought
it somewhat difficult or very difficult to obtain substance abuse
treatment in the area.
"The whole idea of this survey is that it
will help organizations and agencies in the county secure funding and
help with grant applications, and to assist in the battle against
substance abuse," Drake said. "We hope it will encourage discussions in
classrooms about drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse. And we hope the
information in the survey will be used by families, which will help
create awareness of substance abuse problems."
"This should help
the community recognize the abuse problem," Kuss said. "It's something
we don't want to just sweep under the carpet."
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