By Stephanie Bunker
Moapa Valley Progress
Does drug and alcohol abuse really exist in a little town like Moapa Valley? You’d better believe they do! And thanks to the Nevada Community Prevention Coalition (NCPC) we now have a good idea about what really goes on here in our “happy valley.”
Last fall, a survey developed by the Cannon Survey Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was administered in many rural areas of Clark County. This was done to collect a wide range of data from the communities.
Debbie Oglesby, the Northern Coordinator for NCPC, stated the importance of having that data. “Everyone wants to see numbers,” Oglesby said. “And in order to get services you have to show that that there is a need for those services.”
This survey is also used to acquire grant money for the NCPC program.
“It is already being used to write grants for funds in July,” said Oglesby.
The survey targeted individuals in middle school and high school. There were 269 responders who took the survey in the group between the ages 13 and 17. Sixty-two of the respondants were 12 or younger, and 214 were 18 years and older.
There were 542 total surveys collected from the various communities. From Moapa Valley there were 91 responses. A majority of surveys from Moapa Valley were collected at the NCPC carnival in January this year.
In addition to the Moapa Valley, the survey went out to three other rural communities including Virgin Valley, Laughlin, and Boulder City.
Oglesby feels that the survey got a good representation of the area. But she pointed out that no survey is perfect.
“Not as many of the troublesome kids showed up at the carnival,” Oglesby said. “So they aren’t really accounted for.”
Oglesby also felt some questions were slightly skewed regarding guns or weapons since so many kids in the Moapa Valley community use guns for hunting.
NCPC is primarily focused on drugs and alcohol abuse but these areas can potentially be expanded into other topics such as sexual abuse, bullying, and depression. The survey included these areas and more so that other programs can benefit from those statistical numbers.
The results showed three different demographics; the overall frequency, those over or under 18 years old, and the data in the 4 different communities.
The survey started out with questions in regards to safety. On the question: “How often do you wear a seatbelt when riding in a car driven by someone else?” 63% of all responders said that they always wear their seatbelts; 23% said that they wear them most of the time and only 3% responded that they never wear their seatbelt at all. The Moapa Valley results followed along the same lines with 63% saying they wear their seatbelt and only 3 people out of 91 saying they never wear their seatbelt.
The next section was in regards to violent behavior. One of the questions asked, “In the past 12 months how many times were you in a physical fight?” Results from the responders under the age of 18 said that 74% had never been in a fight, 7.8% had been in a fight only once and 9.9% have been in 2 fights. Only 3.2% had been in 12 or more fights.
In Moapa Valley 81% said that they have been in no fights, 8% said that they had been in fights 2 or 3 times, and 2.2% had been in fights 12 or more times.
Another questions was regarding tobacco use. The question asked: “How old were you when you smoked a whole cigarette for the first time?”. In response 65% had never smoked a whole cigarette. But those who had were typically 13 years or older. In Moapa Valley, only 6 respondents had smoked a whole cigarette for the first time when they were 11 or 12 years old, 9 respondents smoked one for the first time at ages 13-16, and 10 respondents smoked a whole cigarette for the first time when they were 17 years or older. But 64% of Moapa Valley residents surveyed said that they had never smoked a cigarette.
Another question dealt with alcohol use. It read: “During the past 30 days how did you usually get the alcohol you drank?” Of those surveyed in Moapa Valley, 77% said they did not drink any alcohol in the last 30 days. Of those who did, the adults were more likely to buy the alcohol they drank in the store. The juveniles who had drank alcohol were likely to have it given to them. In Moapa Valley, 10% bought it in a store, 2.4% gave someone else money to buy it for them, and 3.6% had the alcohol given to them.
The drug abuse section of the survey asked about several different types of drugs including marijuana, cocaine, heroine, methamphetamines, ecstasy, steroid pills or injections, and prescription drugs.
One question taken from the survey asked, “How wrong do your friends feel it would be for you to smoke marijuana?”
Of those responding, 62.5% felt that their friends would think it very wrong for them to smoke marijuana. While 12.9% felt their friends wouldn’t think smoking marijuana was wrong at all. Interestingly, 92.5% of this group have not smoked marijuana in the past 30 days while 7.4% have.
The survey went into detail on each subject gathering enough information for several different programs. Through the NCPC, Oglesby said that she has found that there are other coalitions that can come teach in Moapa Valley, including information about teen pregnancy and children drowning.
With NCPC Oglesby said that she is trying to teach “A better choice, and better place to be.”
“If the right information is presented and taught it has an impact on the kids and their decisions,” Oglesby said.
A full copy of the survey is available for review by going to this article at www.ruralbusinessjournal.com/mvprogress, or contact Debbie Oglesby at 397-6262.
