Recently, I attended the Central CAPT summit in Chicago where teams of people from ten states gathered. Among other remarks, Bob Denniston, Director of HHS Secretary's Initiative on Youth Substance Abuse Prevention told participants that, "It is important for individuals and communities to celebrate their successes." His comment caused me to reflect on the results of the Minnesota Survey on Adult Substance Use: Summary of Key Findings that recently crossed my desk. This report showed that rates of drug use in Minnesota were less than half the national average.
I asked myself, "Where are the front page headlines, the hand slapping and other forms of congratulations for the good news?" This is really significant positive news, yet I recall very little fanfare. Even marijuana, by far the most commonly used illegal drug nationally and in Minnesota, showed a Minnesota use rate of about four percent versus a national rate of eight percent. The use of any drug (other than alcohol or tobacco) in Minnesota is less than half the national rate. If Minnesota drug use was twice the national rate, you can bet it would have been big, front page news.
Perhaps as good practitioners, we tend to sidestep the successes to look at what still needs work. True, we see that our adult cigarette and alcohol use needs attention. In fact, our Minnesota alcohol use for adults is about six percentage points higher than the national figure. And what about our youth? We are on the eve of receiving the new Minnesota Student Survey data for 1998. We know that youth smoking rates in Minnesota in 1995 were higher than the national rate. So, what will the 1998 survey data show us? While we recognize these problems and apprehensions, the fact that Minnesota adult drug use is half the national average is news worth celebrating. We can all step back for a moment and feel good about some good news.
Congratulations to everyone who has had a part in contributing to these positive results.