Fewer Ottawa teens being bullied, using prescription drugs

A new report on student drug use and health in 2013 has found that use ofmost drugs hasremainedstable in recent years and that misuse of prescription drugshas declined, while fewer students say they're being bullied.

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More than 1,200 Ottawa students in Grades 7 to 12were sampled for the 2013 Ottawa Public Health study, which was done for the first time in 2009, and again in 2011, to track the physical and mental health of teens.

Encouraging findingsof the report include:

• The percentage of students in Ottawa who self-rated their physical health as excellent or very good significantly increased from 57 per cent in 2009 to 67 per cent in 2013.
• The majority of students in Ottawa felt safe in their school (95 per cent), felt they were a part of their school (86 per cent), and felt close to people at their school (89 per cent).
• Sixty-four per cent of students in Ottawa reported excellent or very good mental health.
• Fewer students in 2013 reported bullying others at school, with a significant drop from 20 per cent in 2009 to 11 per cent in 2013.
• Non-medical use of prescription drugs (without a doctor's prescription or without a doctor telling you to take them) decreased from 21 per cent in 2009 to 14 per cent in 2013. This includes drugs such as opioid pain relievers, ADHD medication and tranquilizers/sedatives.
• Non-medical use of prescription opioids such as Tylenol 3, codeine and Percocet saw a similar decline from 18 per cent in 2009 to 13 per cent in 2013.
• Rates of drug use have not increased between 2009 and 2013, with the exception of over-the-counter cough/cold medication used to get high, which has increased.

Discouraging findings include:

• One in five students reported being drunk during the past month and more than 20 per cent reported binge drinking in the past month. Drinking games were played by 27 per cent of high school students in the past month.
• One-quarter of high school students said it would be easy to get prescription pain pills without a prescription. Thirteen per cent of Grade 7 to 12 students had used prescription opioids non-medically in the past year, and two-thirds of them got the drug from home.
• Past-year use of over-the-counter cough/cold medication to get high rose from six per cent in 2009 to 13 per cent in 2013, and in 2013 Ottawa use was significantly higher than in Ontario (nine per cent).