By Mike Donahue

Late last year it was reported that new studies have found rural teens are much more likely to abuse prescription medications and over-the-counter drugs than those teens living in urban areas.

These studies, as reported in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, said that while there is no difference between urban and rural youth in rates of illicit drug use, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and hallucinogens, 13 percent of rural teens reported ever having used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes, compared with 10 percent of urban teens. When the researchers assessed specific medication types, they found rural teens were also more likely to have used pain relievers (11.5 percent vs. 10.3 percent) or tranquilizers (3.5 percent vs. 2.5 percent) non-medically.

While it has been a long accepted statistic that drug abuse was a major problem with inner city kids, we were supposed to be surprised, shocked if you will, that like many other negative behaviors, drug and alcohol abuse had suddenly migrated from metropolitan areas into the country.

Without belaboring the point, I believe the statistics are accurate and representative of those who participated in the studies. Anyone who believes otherwise must have had their head buried in the sand for the last 50 years or be from another planet.

However, I think anyone who believes this study is representative of rural kids in general, as well as the vast majority of the youth who live in our part of the world in particular, is doing themselves and our kids a grave injustice.

For the past few weeks and months, I’ve had the privilege of meeting and writing stories about some of the many amazing kids who live in Moapa Valley and other rural areas of Southern Nevada.

These youngsters range in age from 6 to 19. They live in Sandy Valley, Pahrump, Virgin Valley, Pahranagat Valley and, of course Moapa Valley (on both sides of I-15). They go to school, they do their chores and homework, they help around the house and, although it might not occur to them, they are the epitome of what I like to believe our rural youths are all about.

Many of these kids are incredibly bright. Not long ago I photographed and/or wrote about a group of 26 students who were being accepted to the Moapa Valley High School Chapter of the National Honor Society (NHS. The standards for admission are stringent, yet each of these students surpassed the requirements with flying colors.

In other instances I have met, photographed and wrote about kids so involved in rural life it’s amazing. They’re raising livestock – cattle, pigs, chickens, goats, sheep – and gardening and shooting and participating in a life that seems as far removed from drug abuse as possible.

The Sean and Maggie McMurray family in Logandale is a perfect example.

There are five McMurray kids who are raising a virtual farm of animals for this year’s Clark County Fair. Calvin, 18, is raising a lamb and a goat; Kenna, 15, a lamb, a goat and some chickens; Brynne, 13, a lamb, a goat and a rabbit; Ryan, 9, a lamb, a goat and chickens for two projects, and Iain, 6, is raising guinea pigs and a laying chicken.

Now that family is more than just a healthy dose of rural living to anyone looking hard enough.

I am not so stupid or naïve to believe that just because a teen is involved in rural life activities, he or she is immune from substance abuse, but even the most jaded researchers would have to agree that active involvement in almost any kind of rural life is probably the best and healthiest preventative measure possible.