5 ms·

An American helped Iceland fix its teen substance abuse problem

38 points by scapecast 3y ago

zamfi 3y ago
Not to get all correlation/causation [0] on this, but teen substance abuse is down globally across the board. In the US, for example, alcohol use by 8th graders dropped from 45%+ in 1992 to below 25% in 2012 [1], the period described in this article. Fairly sure middle schoolers in the US aren't getting natural highs...unless social media counts! [0]: https://xkcd.com/552/ https://xkcd.com/552/ [1]: https://monitoringthefuture.org/data/bx-by/drug-prevalence/#drug=%22Alcohol%22 https://monitoringthefuture.org/data/bx-by/drug-prevalence/#...
- GauntletWizard 3y ago
  It seems that that use has been entirely supplanted, or more, but Marijuana use in the same period[1,2]. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/health-effects/teens.html https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/health-effects/teens.html [2] https://nida.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/2022/08/marijuana-and-hallucinogen-use-among-young-adults-reached-all-time-high-in-2021 https://nida.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/2022/08/marij...
  - Ckirby 3y ago
    [dead]
  - zamfi 3y ago
    Marijuana use has definitely increased since 2012, but it was pretty flat from 1992-2012 according to the same site I linked above.
- Aerroon 3y ago
  I wonder how much video games are a part of this. When I was growing up these two definitely competed for time.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
rokkitmensch 3y ago
Just to snark, it really is transformative, parents who spend time with their kids!
ajcp 3y ago
> Twenty years ago teens in Iceland were among the heaviest substance abusers in Europe — with more than 40 percent of 15- and 16-year-olds reporting being drunk in a given month. > Fast forward to 2017, and the country boasts the fewest drinking, smoking and drug-taking youth on the continent. This is one metric that they are then combining with two other metrics to show...depreciation in the first? Like...yeah, that's how numbers work.
b800h 3y ago
Went in fairly sceptical, as the opening gambit concerns underage drinking, which as a Brit, I view as a minor peccadillo. But there's something good in there - actually quite a fascinating approach to substance abuse, that a person's approach to stress dictates the appeal of certain drugs. Not mentioned but the appeal of e.g. LSD also falls out of this. I'm not sure it needs to be quite this pathologised though. Unfortunately the article doesn't pay off in the end, and amounts to "open youth centres for kids to stop them drinking", which is remarkably unoriginal.
camgunz 3y ago
Contrast this program with more draconian drug policies like "give drug dealers the death penalty". Very impressive.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  Where do they do this? In the US, the death penalty is just for murder, or sometimes rape.
  - camgunz 3y ago
    Oh it's a big conservative talking point. Singapore has a policy that sometimes executes drug dealers and they like that idea.

38 points by scapecast 3y ago

Not to get all correlation/causation [0] on this, but teen substance abuse is down globally across the board. In the US, for example, alcohol use by 8th graders dropped from 45%+ in 1992 to below 25% in 2012 [1], the period described in this article. Fairly sure middle schoolers in the US aren't getting natural highs...unless social media counts! [0]: https://xkcd.com/552/ https://xkcd.com/552/ [1]: https://monitoringthefuture.org/data/bx-by/drug-prevalence/#drug=%22Alcohol%22 https://monitoringthefuture.org/data/bx-by/drug-prevalence/#...

GauntletWizard 3y ago
It seems that that use has been entirely supplanted, or more, but Marijuana use in the same period[1,2]. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/health-effects/teens.html https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/health-effects/teens.html [2] https://nida.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/2022/08/marijuana-and-hallucinogen-use-among-young-adults-reached-all-time-high-in-2021 https://nida.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/2022/08/marij...
- Ckirby 3y ago
  [dead]
- zamfi 3y ago
  Marijuana use has definitely increased since 2012, but it was pretty flat from 1992-2012 according to the same site I linked above.
Aerroon 3y ago
I wonder how much video games are a part of this. When I was growing up these two definitely competed for time.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

rokkitmensch 3y ago

Just to snark, it really is transformative, parents who spend time with their kids!

ajcp 3y ago

> Twenty years ago teens in Iceland were among the heaviest substance abusers in Europe — with more than 40 percent of 15- and 16-year-olds reporting being drunk in a given month. > Fast forward to 2017, and the country boasts the fewest drinking, smoking and drug-taking youth on the continent. This is one metric that they are then combining with two other metrics to show...depreciation in the first? Like...yeah, that's how numbers work.

b800h 3y ago

Went in fairly sceptical, as the opening gambit concerns underage drinking, which as a Brit, I view as a minor peccadillo. But there's something good in there - actually quite a fascinating approach to substance abuse, that a person's approach to stress dictates the appeal of certain drugs. Not mentioned but the appeal of e.g. LSD also falls out of this. I'm not sure it needs to be quite this pathologised though. Unfortunately the article doesn't pay off in the end, and amounts to "open youth centres for kids to stop them drinking", which is remarkably unoriginal.

camgunz 3y ago

Contrast this program with more draconian drug policies like "give drug dealers the death penalty". Very impressive.

gnicholas 3y ago
Where do they do this? In the US, the death penalty is just for murder, or sometimes rape.
- camgunz 3y ago
  Oh it's a big conservative talking point. Singapore has a policy that sometimes executes drug dealers and they like that idea.