Post by formerlyak on May 26, 2017 10:52:19 GMT -5
From what I understand (my son is only in 5th), pot is still the big drug at our high school, as it was when I was in school there. The high school one town over, has had issues with more serious drugs. The stuff I have read about it attributes it, at least in that school, to higher level of disposable income available to students. From parent chatter, I have also heard that too many parents are trying to be "cool" by turing the other cheek when they know their kid is involved. The school has had some parent education nights about the issue to try to reign it in. Not sure how much that has actually helped.
Post by pinkdutchtulips on May 26, 2017 11:10:30 GMT -5
My part of nor cal is well known for being in close proximity to a large population of meth users and opiate painkiller addicts. Go in one direction from my house and you have UMC kids raiding their parents' medicine cabinets for painkillers and go the other and you've got kids shooting/snorting/smoking meth.
i know the drugs are bad but i came from a really bad drug school - as in a kid got busted for 1/2lb of coke in the parking lot - so i tend to think drugs of this level as not shocking.
however, i understand how bad it is and that the parents here in general suck about dealing with it. for reference, 35 parents showed up to the board meeting about the drugs in school, while the proposed time change for school had 100s b/c people wanted to complain about their kids not being able to practice sports after school
Well I think parents like to stick their heads in the sand, no one wants to think it is their child. I was one of those kids. Still maintain a 4.0 GPA and was a pretty decent kid aside from that. I think people are so used to looking for the stereotypical drug user they miss what is in front of their face.
Definitely this. The best school in our district is the one where the kids have the $ to buy RX and harder drugs. In my school, the most the kids talk about is weed and alcohol.
The drug problem has grown because we continue to believe kids in suburbia are:
"just experimenting" "have anxiety from all the hard tests" "Will grow out of it" "Have the wrong friends" "Are being ostracized at school"
As long as people delude themselves and make excuses then it will continue. It is very sad, but at least they are treating it like a medical issue. Our kids are locked up for "going through a phase".
I just did a Google search and going back to 2015 there are articles about the rise of opiate use in our suburbs, but nothing for our county specifically. Have you heard more on this? I don't know many people with school aged children in the county.
I have not heard of an uptick in our county. Either it is not an issue, or no one cares enough about the death of our kids to cover it. I am leaning towards it not being as much of an issue though. I think there is a certain amount of disposable income associated with being able to easily get the drugs that a lot of kids in our county don't have. Also black people are generally resistant to some of the prescription meds that are popular so I wonder about the ease of raiding the medicine cabinet. But I am just speculating.
We had a ninth grader busted for heroin. 15 years old. Pot is popular amongst the middle school kids (I've had a few suspended for possession this year). But their parents, older siblings, aunts and uncles? Heroin is huge in southern NH. 6 deaths so far from carfentanil this year.
Opioid use and heroin use is raging here. We had a record number of overdoses/deaths last year.
The problem is people are NIMBY and don't want rehabs or methadone clinics here because they say it will bring more drugs. But how are people supposed to get help? I went to a meeting and the general response to Narcan was why was it free when cancer patients have to pay for chemo? Just let them die and eventually no one will have to worry about them.
It makes me so angry to hear things like that. My XH is an addict and it's not as simple as "well just don't take that first hit of mj/coke/whatever. I worry about my kids future.
Post by lyssbobiss, Command, B613 on May 26, 2017 11:54:04 GMT -5
Things here are dire. We had 5 overdoses in my tiny city within a 24 hour period. There was a guy who passed out while driving right in front of the school bus.
"This prick is asking for someone here to bring him to task Somebody give me some dirt on this vacuous mass so we can at last unmask him I'll pull the trigger on it, someone load the gun and cock it While we were all watching, he got Washington in his pocket."
Meth, marijuana, and non-prescribed Xanax still reign supreme based on the cases I've been handling. There is one pocket where heroin use started increasing dramatically, but it dropped off after a strong effort to go after the dealers.
I was involved in juvenile drug court (a diversion program) several years ago and the one kid that worried me the most was the heroin addict. He relapsed so often and so hard.
What's the attraction of drugs for kids? Like why do they want to experiment? Have movies and music made it seem exciting? I don't get the appeal but I'm also boring and risk averse and have been, in a drug and drinking way, for a good long time.
People have been using drugs for a variety of reasons for ever. Kids are not immune to this.
Because they can Because they are bored Because they are in pain Because it feels good Because it is fun...etc
Movies and music don't make it any more exciting than they ever have. Drug use has been depicted in music and movies for ages.
What's the attraction of drugs for kids? Like why do they want to experiment? Have movies and music made it seem exciting? I don't get the appeal but I'm also boring and risk averse and have been, in a drug and drinking way, for a good long time.
The problem is huge in my state (RI). In fact, there was just a major bust on drug dealers/traffickers on Tuesday. Almost all of them were 18 or 19.
The route up the east coast through New England is RIFE with trafficking. The ports are also a major inlet for drugs, so it's really everywhere.
There has been a push for our police officers to carry Narcan on them, but some people (mostly white mothers) are saying it is a waste of money and training because the drug addicts should just die from their habits
Hey, honey, it's probably YOUR private-school son who is most likely to be abusing drugs. Bet you'd change your tune real quick if the tables were turned...
I gather that this is the case here. It's a big problem in our public schools AND in our urban private schools.
For the love of all that is holy, please look into what sort of drug education is happening in your schools. If it is DARE, or their "new and improved" version, Keepin' it Real (yeah, that's the name), I urge you to fight against it because that shit does not work.
Not only that, those programs are not designed to target folks who are already using drugs, like so many kids are.
Based on my research (for my dissertation), the best available programs are Botvin's Life Skills Training and Teen Intervene.
If anyone cares, I'm happy to share my dissertation via PM, and some other research I did based on the heroin issue in the 'burbs of Chicago.
We need more harm reduction and less punishing kids. Drug dogs don't keep kids from using drugs. They'll just get sneakier about it, putting them in more danger.
Everyone should have access to naloxone (Narcan) and know how to use it. It should be just as available as an epi pen or AED. Also, while police officers having it is a nice step, it really needs to be in the hands of users and their friends/family. This is especially true in areas where response time of police/EMTs is slow.
We need MORE syringe exchange programs and we desperately need safe consumption sites. Not only would they save lives, keep users off the street, provide them access to treatment, etc, the cost savings could be significant.
I will note that there have been ZERO OVERDOSE DEATHS in any of the existing safe consumption sites that exist. However thousands of lives have been saved because being in a safe place with access to compassionate medical care when you use means someone is there to reverse a potential overdose and provide aftercare.
That org is also working on a new curriculum that can be implemented in schools, which will hopefully be launched in October.
Lastly, one of my jobs is as a drug education manager for an org, and I facilitate the training for a peer drug harm reduction program for college students. I have had a few people reach out to me already about tailoring it to high school kids, and it looks like I may be doing so starting in Denver next fall.
I am more than happy to share additional resources or answer any questions you may have.
Post by lyssbobiss, Command, B613 on May 26, 2017 12:43:54 GMT -5
I think some of the appeal is just being told not to. I know it was, for me growing up. Tell me not to do drugs because they'll kill me and my brain is like "well now I need to know why I shouldn't. Also nothing bad will happen anyway. And if it does, oh well." It was this mindset also of being very ambivalent about life and my own future, and feeling reckless and also just wanting to know what the fuss was.
I think now, it's really easy for kids to have access to pills especially because so many adults have access to them. So, it's an easy place to start (and in my city, we have a major opiate problem so that's my frame of reference here). Most people I know have random painkillers somewhere in their homes.
"This prick is asking for someone here to bring him to task Somebody give me some dirt on this vacuous mass so we can at last unmask him I'll pull the trigger on it, someone load the gun and cock it While we were all watching, he got Washington in his pocket."
Post by imimahoney on May 26, 2017 12:53:48 GMT -5
10 yrs ago we had our first oxy/heroin related od. He was a hockey player who had a bad injury and went on painkillers. He did 2 separate stops in rehab and a year after he graduated he was dead.
Our hardest hit kids are our underperforming boys. They have nothing really going for them and turn to drugs as an outlet. It's devastating to watch.
For the love of all that is holy, please look into what sort of drug education is happening in your schools. If it is DARE, or their "new and improved" version, Keepin' it Real (yeah, that's the name), I urge you to fight against it because that shit does not work.
Not only that, those programs are not designed to target folks who are already using drugs, like so many kids are.
Based on my research (for my dissertation), the best available programs are Botvin's Life Skills Training and Teen Intervene.
I am newly employed as a substance abuse counselor through a local hospital. We have counselors in various high schools in the area and use the Teen Intervene curriculum. I haven't implemented it yet but just going through the training was really informative. I can see how it will be effective. We also use a curriculum called Project SUCCESS that was developed in Westchester County.
I'm in Upstate NY and while it's mostly alcohol and marijuana, there's also issues with everything else, meth, heroine, Rx pills, etc. And it's not only the kids, it's their parents, and sometimes entire families that are using together. It's hard to break through the barriers but we're sure as hell going to try and stop the cycle.
I would love to read your dissertation if you don't mind! This is pretty new territory for me so any information I can have is helpful.
Its bad here. Most people either think "not in my school" "not in my town" or "not in my neighborhood". They are most likely wrong on all 3.
Thanks bimbi284 for the info. Do you have something shareable proving DARE-type programs don't work?
Its not all that hard to find if you google it, but here's an excerpt, and the citations mentioned:
"Controversy has surrounded one of the most widely marketed and popular drug
education programs, Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.). Several studies have
shown evidence that it lacks the efficacy it was once believed to have. For instance,
Ennett, Tobler, Ringwalt, and Flewelling (1994) reviewed eight evaluations of the
D.A.R.E. program. Although the majority of studies reviewed by the authors
demonstrated large effect sizes for improvements regarding knowledge of drugs and
social skills, the smallest effects were for preventing actual drug use. These findings
indicate that replications of D.A.R.E. do not prevent youth drug use as well as the
original research evaluating the program suggested. For example, researchers who
conducted preliminary evaluation studies of D.A.R.E. found lower use of alcohol,
cigarettes, and other drugs (DeJong, 1987; Nyre, 1985; Nyre, 1986; Nyre & Rose, 1987).
Due to the lack of interactive activities in the D.A.R.E. program, Ennett and colleagues suggested that other, more interactive programs may be more successful. Furthermore, in
a qualitative study implemented by Kane-Willis, Schmitz, Bazan, Fraguada Narloch and
Wallace (2011) to inform the development of a community-based heroin prevention
project, youth participants described D.A.R.E as “boring” and “forgettable.”
Brown and colleagues (2007) found that drug education programs had some
impact on youth who had never used substances, such as a commitment to not use drugs
or abstinence from drug use, but there was little impact on those already using substances
(Brown, Guo, Singer, Downes, & Brinales, 2007). Coggans (2006) also addressed this
issue and agreed that youth who are most at-risk for problematic drug use will not be
influenced by the more general prevention programs targeted at the entire youth
population, such as D.A.R.E. In order to address the issue of targeting youth who have
yet to use substances, as well as those who may have already started experimenting with
substances, it is important to differentiate between primary versus secondary prevention
of substance use.
(They are older sources because this research was done ages ago but schools are STILL using this shit).
Ennett, S. T., Tobler, N. S., Ringwalt, C. L., & Flewelling, R. L. (1995). How effective is
drug abuse resistance education? A meta-analysis of Project DARE outcome
evaluations. American Journal of Public Health, 84, 1394-1401.
DeJong, W. (1987). A short-term evaluation of Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance
Education): Preliminary indications of effectiveness. Journal of Drug Education,
17, 279-294. doi: 10.2190/N2JC-9DXB-BLFD-41EA
Nyre, G. F. (1985). Final evaluation report, 1984-1985, project DARE (Drug Abuse
Resistance Education). Los Angeles: Evaluation and Training Institute.
Nyre, G. F. (1986). DARE Evaluation Report, 1985-1986 Project DARE (Drug Abuse
Resistance Education). Los Angeles, CA: Evaluation and Training Institute.
Nyre, G. F., & Rose, C. (1987). Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) longitudinal
evaluation annual report. Los Angeles, CA: Evaluation and Training Institute.
Also, with regard to the "new" program: "Keepin’ it REAL is a prevention program developed by Penn State researchers and given evidence-based recognition in 2006. However, when D.A.R.E. adopted the Keepin’ it REAL program in 2009, D.A.R.E. changed its strategy. D.A.R.E. offered Keepin it Real, which was initially designed for high school students, to 5thand 6th graders. Further, because D.A.R.E.’s leadership continues to place greater value on branding than scientific evidence, they failed to implement a long-term evaluation system. Relative to its cost and popularity, few studies have been performed on D.A.R.E.’s Keepin’ it REAL program. Consequently, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) ranks its “readiness for dissemination” at just a 1.5 out of 4."
I think Ohio is second in the nation for drug overdoses so yeah. We're pretty overrun with opiate addiction here. Unintentional drug overdose is the number one cause of accidental death in the state.
It is the fucking heroin. All drugs are bad but there are very few with the properties and addict ability as heroin.
It was a problem in 01 when I graduated. Six people OD -4 died. My husband same thing. I think there is more awareness now and probably an increase. But it is the heroin.
Meth and opiates are a major problem in the 19+ age. A meth house is busted at least once a week here and the heroin overdoses are steadily rising. We are LCOL and quite rural so they find remnants of labs in the woods all the time and in old abandoned homes. Prescription pills were awful for about a decade but heroin has taken over that market.
My oldest is 17. Weed, booze and Rx uppers are big in the school. Nicotine is a big one too. A lot of the male athletes chew and a lot of kids smoke. XH has an opiate addiction and both of my boys won't have anything to do with him. Because of that they hate drugs and are very honest with me about what is out there. The middle school is quiet yet but the high school drinks like an episode of FNL.
What's the attraction of drugs for kids? Like why do they want to experiment? Have movies and music made it seem exciting? I don't get the appeal but I'm also boring and risk averse and have been, in a drug and drinking way, for a good long time.
There will always be drugs and kids experimenting. It is a push away from your parents and being stupid. The problem is that heroin can't be recreational. THAT IS THE LARGEST ISSUE. Coke, weed,meth, E, alcohol do not have that same addictive property. You can do it one night and never touch it again. Heroin is not recreational, can't be. Kids don't get that. Yet.
The studies are there in what is effective to reduce future drug use. The problem, which is similar to the abstinence sex training, is that it is ignored and instead of teaching safe, effective ways to reduce the drug use, they think saying " don't do it" will work. It won't.
The massive cuts to drug and alcohol and MH has inflated the problem drastically.
Post by Black Lavender on May 26, 2017 20:24:36 GMT -5
There has definitely been an increase in opiate use in our area (Main Line, PA) and the corresponding parental denial. I struggle with the sudden sympathies for opiate addictions...I come from a family of addicts (mainly crack) and there was negative sympathy when this drug tore families and communities apart, so I'm rather hesitant to she'd tears and light candles since it seems like people only started to give a damn about addiction when there was a white face tied to it. All of the sudden addiction needs treatment and not punishment. I don't disagree with that, it's just yet another reminder that black lives don't matter.
My area is bad for opiate addictions. It's so sad to see the damage they do to people. I'm loving that one of the doctors I work with is trying to get his patients off opiates, and onto medical marijuana instead. Seeing a patient get off opiates and start actually living a productive life again is one of the most rewarding aspects of my job.