Alcohol and drug use continues to drop in Arizona’s youth. That is according to the biennial survey of over 50,000 students done by the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission. The survey studies substance use, ease of access to firearms and adverse childhood experiences.
Andrew Lefevre is the executive director of the commission.
"That’s a measure of things going on in their life, and as we see, as the number of adverse childhood experiences go up, there is a strong correlation between those numbers and increased likelihood of substance abuse," Lefevre said.
The survey did find a lack of awareness regarding fentanyl. Nearly half of all eighth graders had never heard of it, and that drops down to about 25% for 12th graders.
