The Effects of Alcohol and Marijuana on Adolescents

Abstract

Wisconsin was one of eleven states to win a federal grant to enhance the schools learning environment. After surveying students, Wisconsin found student alcohol and drug use to be extremely high. Select Wisconsin school districts began to implement targeted interventions based on their school-specific survey data. The purpose of this thesis was to study the effectiveness of student interventions on student alcohol and drug use based on the data results from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) developed from the Safe and Supportive Schools federal grant. The YRBS results indicated a major importance and need for schools to implement specific interventions to help reduce student alcohol and drug use. This research suggested that running targeted interventions would decrease the use of alcohol and marijuana use. The results of the study specified that the interventions impacted a decrease in students drinking one drink of alcohol within 30 days and students reporting gang activity in their school. Unfortunately, however, the interventions did not have an impact on students drinking five or more drinks of alcohol and students smoking marijuana. There was an increase in students drinking five or more drinks of alcohol and students smoking marlJuana.