Dare officer: Teach them when they're young

National Institute on Drug Abuse scientists answered teenagers’ questions Tuesday during an online live chat session about the effects of drugs and alcohol. The chat day is an annual event held during National Drug and Alcohol Facts week, which is this week.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism partnered with the organization to answer questions. Both are affiliated with the National Institutes of Health.

Students from 61 participating schools were able to ask questions until 5 p.m. Over 7,000 questions were submitted .

DARE officer Sgt. Janada Anslum of the Morgan City Police Department educates young people in the city from a different perspective but with the same well-meaning intent of the institutes. She goes in classrooms to teach young people “how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug free lives.”

“I feel that if we teach our children young, catch them at a young age letting them know about drugs and the importance of not being on them, it’s a good possibility that they will not turn to drugs,” Anslum said.

In Louisiana, 34 percent of high school students in 2011 have used marijuana one or more times during their life, according to an Office of Adolescent Health report. The national statistic at the time was 40 percent.

The percentage of Louisiana teens in 2011 that used inhalants by sniffing glue, breathing in contents of aerosol spray cans or inhaled any paint to get high was 13 percent. This is above the national statistic of 11 percent.

Anslum has worked as a DARE officer for four years. Besides her love for working with kids, her decision to work in that capacity was her way of giving back to the community.

She wants to be proactive by informing students about the effects of drug usage. In addition, Anslum desires to help them make healthy and wise decisions by teaching them how to do that in DARE class sessions.

DARE class lessons are for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

A study in 2011 revealed that 26 percent of Louisiana teenagers drank alcohol for the first time before age 13 years old. It was “more than a few sips,” said in the health report.

The University of Michigan surveyed 44,892 students from 382 public and private schools in 2015 about the use of alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit drug use.

The survey revealed teens are more likely to use e-cigarettes than cigarettes.

Sixty-eight percent of high school seniors do not view regular marijuana smoking as harmful. But 71 percent of them disapprove of regular marijuana smoking.

The National Drug and Alcohol Facts week started in 2010 by scientists to help demystify messages teens receive through the media and friends about drugs and alcohol.