Colorado is among the highest-ranked states in the use of alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine, says a two-year survey of 136,000 Americans cited by the Denver Post. In several categories, it appears the greatest percentage of users are between ages 18 and 25. About 47 percent of all 18- to 25-year-old Colorado residents had binged on booze in the past month, the survey said. “That’s a staggering number,” said Scoot Crandall of TEAM Fort Collins, a substance-abuse prevention program for youth and families. “To me that’s a wake-up call that we have to do more on prevention, especially with our young people.”
The findings were released yesterday by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Colorado’s problems stem from a “culture of acceptance” for drugs and alcohol, said Song Godwin, a drug-and-alcohol abuse counselor at AB Counseling South in Centennial. “It’s a belief system that’s skewed over generations. A lot of people grew up in this culture, and some of them have an innate belief that ‘since our parents did this, then it can’t be all that bad, so why shouldn’t we do it?”‘
Link: http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2711955,00.html