By Terry James
BLOOMINGTON- You’ve probably heard the term, “Everybody is doing it.”
However, Colleen O’Connor with Project OZ in Bloomington said that is not reality and more and more teens are deciding drugs and drinking are not for them.
“So, the number is actually pretty small,” said O’Connor. “According to the Illinois Youth Survey which is the survey they do every two years asking kids about their drug use it turns out that 75-percent of young people overestimate how much their peers are using.”
O’Connor says this is because visual media such as movies and music videos show excessive drug and alcohol abuse, but that is not reality.
“The media is a huge influence on what people think is normal especially young people that have not seen much of the world yet,” said O’Conner. “What they see of the world is what they see on TV, and in ads, and in music videos.
The spokeswoman for the youth empowerment center said teens who don’t use drugs or alcohol should be aware that are in the majority.
Terry James can be reached at terry@wjbc.com.
