MONROE — Forget 21; the average child in Union County has had his first drink of alcohol before the age of 13.

There are other signs that addictive behaviors are increasing in this year’s drug and school safety report, which surveyed 3,000 middle and high school students.

Alcohol is the drug of choice for local students, Safe and Drug Free Schools coordinator Denise Cavoly said, but marijuana and prescription drug use are also rising.

Union County Public Schools spent Monday through Friday celebrating Red Ribbon Week, the nation’s oldest and largest drug prevention program.

A one-week anti-drug campaign isn’t that effective on its own, Cavoly said, but can have a long-term impact when problems are addressed throughout the school year.

This year, for example, schools are attempting to send the “consistent message” of drugs’ harmful effects by integrating campaign lessons across the curriculum, she said.

Drama classes might write and perform plays about the physical and emotional disadvantages of drugs, while social studies classes focus on the social norms.

Each day across the nation, Cavoly said, 7,800 children ages 12 to 17 take their first drink of alcohol. In a sample of Union County middle and high school students, 15.3 percent of them drank alcohol in the past 30 days, up from 14.2 percent in 2006. The average student has had alcohol by 12.4 years old.

Another 7.6 percent used marijuana, also up from 6.2 percent in 2006.

Cavoly pointed out that drug use might stem from other “poor choices” that students make.

The first national Red Ribbon Week was held in 1988, three years after the death of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. Assigned to the Guadalajara, Mexico, office, Camarena was close to a multi-billion dollar drug bust when he was kidnapped, tortured and killed by marijuana and cocaine traffickers.

Red Ribbon Week tries to raise awareness about the dangers of drugs.

Union County elementary school students spent much of the week learning about Camarena, while middle schools looked at the health effects of various drugs. High school students learned what is in the drugs and how prevalent they are among different age and social groups.

Fewer schools planted red tulips this year because of budget cuts.

DRUG USE IN UNION COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

There are about 19,000 middle and high school students in UCPS; 3,000 were surveyed for the 2009 UCPS drug and school safety report. Of those surveyed, sixth-, eighth-, ninth-, 11th- and 12th-graders were represented.

Because of the caffeine they contain, energy drinks are considered drugs, even though they are legal, Safe and Drug Free Schools coordinator Denise Cavoly said. It is the amount and speed at which people drink energy drinks that can make them dangerous, she said, leading to health problems such as heart palpitations.

In the past 30 days:

42.8 percent of high schoolers drank at least one energy drink

30 percent of middle schoolers drank at least one energy drink

15.3 percent of all students drank alcohol

15 percent of all students used some kind of tobacco product; 11.6 percent smoked cigarettes

7.6 percent of all students used marijuana

5.9 percent of all students took pain pills