Program takes on alcohol, e-cigarette use by children

The bottom line is to help children grow up safer and healthier and to increase parents’ ability to help them do that, says the investigator leading a $1.4 million state-funded alcohol and substance abuse prevention program.

Investigators at the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Cancer Center are working with Augusta area schools to prevent or reduce use of two major substances abused by children: alcohol as well as e-cigarettes, whose use by teens is reaching epidemic proportions, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

“We are focusing on alcohol and electronic cigarette use, but more broadly we are working to prevent children from taking up any type of substance abuse, and to help parents better understand the importance of behaviors they are modeling at home,” says Dr. Martha S. Tingen.

It’s a definite battle, with 1 in 5…