Substances
As kids age, they may notice more of their peers experimenting with various substances, from alcohol to cannabis. According to the 2021 to 2022 Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey, 29 percent of students in grades 7 to 12 admitted to having tried an e-cigarette, 39 percent reported using alcohol in the past 12 months, and 18 percent reported using cannabis in the past 12 months. In the US, 62 percent of teens in grade 12 have abused alcohol, and 50 percent have misused a drug at least once.
If your child has already started using substances, it’s important to unpack what led them to this decision. Davies says that, for many young people, substance use represents a search for acceptance. For others, it’s a way to deal with deeper issues.
Parents will want to get to the root cause to best support kids. “If they’re self medicating for different reasons,” Davies adds, “we want to help them with that too.”