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quoted in a CNN.com article.
• This new research means that letting kids "experiment" with drugs and alcohol as a rite of passage should no longer be socially acceptable, said Sara McGregor-Okroi, executive director of Aliive Roberts County, a coalition dedicated to fostering healthy families.
• "That's what people don't understand about underage drinking, or marijuana use at an early age, or (prescription) pills, or any of that," McGregor-Okroi said. "At a young age, the brain is still developing. So when you get that 'Well, I did it when I was young, and I'm fine' or 'Kids will be kids, they just need to get through it'--that's not true anymore. We know what it does to the brain. We know their brains aren't prepared for it."
• One startling new statistic is that if you start drinking before age 13 you are five times more likely to have substance abuse issues your entire life than if you wait to start drinking until you are 21, McGregor-Okroi said. Unfortunately, according to the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 21 percent of youth respondents in the United States (19 percent in South Dakota, 20 percent in North Dakota) had tried alcohol by the time they were 13.
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• Decision-making education
• Even though this new research suggests that just knowing a situation is risky isn't enough to help adolescents avoid harm, risk education is part of the long-term solution of getting to adulthood healthy and whole.  Eventually, these teens are going to rely on that knowledge to make decisions, even if their emotional circuits are overriding that logic now.
• One place where this education happens is in driver's training. Craig Case, who with Cal Nygaard teaches driver's education at Webster Area High School, said he uses various methods to impress upon students the seriousness of getting behind

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