Celebrating Healthy Communities is a 25-year-old prevention coalition with numerous and diverse partners that work to assist youths in growing up to be responsible, caring and healthy. CHC collects and analyzes data from the Healthy Kids Colorado survey every two years on a variety of youth behaviors and attitudes that affect their overall health.
Eight out of 10 youths in La Plata County reported in the 2015 survey they had not used alcohol or marijuana in the last 30 days. This is good news, though there may have been some misunderstanding in a letter from Dr. Karls (Herald, Aug. 4) about how our evaluator calculates the trends that show a change in youth marijuana use in La Plata County.
Karls’ letter refers to overall Colorado statistics showing only a 1 percent increase. This is a result of aggregating all statistics from all counties, some of which do not allow retail marijuana sales in their counties. CHC measures the percentage change rate versus simply subtracting one year’s results from another.
The percentage change rate was indeed an increase of 11 percent between 2014 and 2016 for La Plata County only. CHC agrees with Karls’ statement that “the risks of marijuana use to the developing brains of teenagers is without a doubt potentially harmful.”
All are welcome to join monthly CHC meetings to discuss keeping our children safe and healthy. Please see ourhealthycommunities.org to learn more about the collaborative work we do.
Pat Senecal, Director
Durango
