Haverhill Leaders Learn Nearly Half of Students Getting High Willing to Quit or Reduce with Help

John Greenleaf Whittier School. (Jay Saulnier file photograph for WHAV News.)

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MGH Survey Data Shows Substance Use, Mental Health Issues Among Haverhill Teens

New data show that more than half of high school students are at risk for depression and/or anxiety and approximately 20% of all students have had suicidal thoughts, according to information presented to Haverhill city councilors this week.

A survey conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School Center for Addiction Medicine revealed that substance use and mental health concerns go hand in hand, but Dr. Randi Schuster of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Addiction Medicine told councilors there is a chance to course correct.

“Substance use for these kids is not happening in a vacuum,” she told the Council. “Very few kids that I am working with clinically say I am getting high because it’s fun, I love it. Most of the kids I am working with say they are using it for some instrumental purpose.”

According to a 2023 study in JAMA Pediatrics that surveyed 15,000 high school students in Massachusetts, approximately one in 10 students who have never used substances have had suicidal thoughts, while 60% of students who use substances daily experience suicidal thought in the last year.

According to the data, 13% of students reported using alcohol, while 11.9% and 10.3% of students reported using cannabis and electronic cigarettes less than one day per week respectively.  However, 46% of students surveyed who use cannabis and 71% of students who use nicotine vapes said they would reduce or stop use if offered help.

“Yes, we’re seeing high rates of use, strong indications of problematic use in some kids, but we asked them ‘If you were offered help today, how many of you would want to either quit or reduce your use?’ By in large, most people would think that in large teens using substances they don’t want to stop, they’re clinging on tightly to their use, [but] that’s not what we’re seeing” she said.

She said the goal is to reach students who are not seeking help for issues, she said, that have been “historically met with punishment.”

“[It’s] about creating moments of access and more restorative spaces for kids who have been historically underserved in the health care system as a whole, really,” Schuster said.

Councilor Ralph T. Basiliere asked Schuster whether mental health concerns and substance abuse are related. She responded by saying she believes “there is a causal relationship,” but that’s not what she is presenting.

Basiliere later asked how cannabis use impacts executive function, the ability for a person to manage tasks and solve problems, in students.

“When kids stop using, we see recovery of these benefits, that really comes to show while kids are actively using, but even in the residual phase between episodes of use, they’re not performing at their peak potential,” she said.

Council Vice President Timothy J. Jordan praised surveyors on their efforts in using survey data to help students.

Schuster said her aim is to “connect back to kids” and provide resources on the programs that MGH offers. John Greenleaf Whittier School, for example, uses iDECIDE—or Drug Education Curriculum: Intervention, Diversion, and Empowerment program—in lieu of suspension to provide students with educational modules on substance use. Supervisor of School Counseling Megan Arivella discussed a planned approach at Haverhill High School.

“That is something that some of our counselors have been trained in but we haven’t been able to get it off the ground because we want to see what it looks like in the high school setting, because it’s very different in the middle school setting.”

Arivella said her and Director of Guidance, Counseling and Student Support Services Jami Dion have tried to “get the ball rolling” on the program for two years.

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