LONGMEADOW – This fall, Longmeadow's Close Community Coalition released their annual report. It not only goes over information about the schools, but more importantly, this report discusses the healthy choices students are making.

Close Community Coalition Program Director Paul McNeil explained, “We gather quantitative data through the school climate survey and we survey middle schoolers in the eighth grade. Every ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th grader has the opportunity to take the survey as well.

"The school climate survey tells us everything from social-emotional information, school climate, substance use rate perceptions and self-reported substance use behaviors,” McNeil shared. “If students report feeling depressed or anxious, what's helping students relieve that stress? What are students' current alcohol use rates in the last 30 days? Are they using marijuana, tobacco, are they misusing prescription drugs?"

He went on to note that this data gives the Coalition a large amount of information each year to compare to years past. "We have trend data on what we should focus on as a coalition; the real risk factors locally here and also what to take advantage of as far as protective factors. It shows us what students are doing really well, what teachers and the schools are doing well, how parents and guardians are successfully raising young people in Longmeadow, specifically. It's great timing for the Coalition to share this information because people are eager to see where we were, where we are now and where we want to go next."

CLOSE stands for Coalition of Longmeadow Organizing Substance Education for the Community. It has been around since 2016 and was founded by a group of volunteers from the community who saw the issue of substance use as a real barrier for young people in Longmeadow.

"It was the police department, the school department, businesses, youth, doctors, parents and local faith-based groups,” McNeil told Reminder Publishing. "There were leaders of all these sectors that came and decided to put together some big events for the community to raise awareness and educate parents and young people around the importance of delaying use, decreasing use, or preventing use."

CLOSE administered the school climate survey in early March just as the schools were closing down and going remote. McNeil said about half of the students filled out the survey remotely.

This year's report shows that CLOSE has a dramatic decrease in vaping by 50 percent in one year, and a decrease in marijuana use in reported 30-day-use in the last two years, with 4 percent of students reporting daily use.

In their survey, 50 percent of students who reported marijuana use in the past 12 months stated feeling tired, groggy or unmotivated. 40 percent coughing or breathing problems, 35 percent spending too much money on it and 30 percent reporting procrastination and problems remembering things.

The survey also reported that 68 percent of Longmeadow High School students had not used alcohol, 86 percent had not used an e-cigarette, 86 percent had not used marijuana, 83 percent had not binge drank and over 99 percent had not misused Rx medications (opiates, sedatives or stimulants) in the past 30 days.

However, McNeil pointed out, "We didn't see a big drop in alcohol use last year. We're really focused on the 30-day use questions, which ask have you used this substance in the last 30 days? That gives us a snapshot of current use with young people.  We're still trending down from where we started collecting data with alcohol."

He continued, “Since 2013, 12th grade alcohol use has dropped 22 percent and it’s 27 percent lower for 10th graders in the same timeframe. Vaping rates in Longmeadow are currently more than 50 percent lower than the state average, while our marijuana use rates are 46 percent lower than the rest of the state. We’re proud of where we’re going long term with alcohol, but we didn't see a big change in the last year.”

McNeil stated that alcohol sales have gone up more than 50 percent compared to this time last year, nationally, which may be having a trickledown effect for the youth.

“There is simply more alcohol in peoples’ homes. Because students have been held home, there’s a lot less access to social substance use opportunities like parties,” responded McNeil. “Alcohol is traditionally a socially used substance and young people use it with peers more frequently than in isolation, so we may see a dramatic decrease in alcohol use this year.”

He explained, “For some reason, marijuana use is not as influenced by peer use or large social gatherings the same way alcohol is. My concern with marijuana use is how much easier it is for young people to access it over the last few years compared to five years or 10 years ago due to legalization and the normalization of use for adults.”

CLOSE is still going to survey students next year in March, most likely remotely. If the schools return to the hybrid model, the survey might be completed in person, but if the numbers keep rising McNeil said it is hard to say what the districts will be doing as far as remote learning.

“It's tough to say. We will certainly still survey everybody, but it will be very interesting to see the substance use rate numbers in comparison to the years prior,” McNeil replied. “Very interesting to see the social anxiety numbers and the depression numbers. I’m really curious about the mental, social, and emotional health questions in addition to what we'll learn about substance use behaviors.”