Lothar121

Lake County High Schools Target Parents With Substance Abuse Message
Yahoo! News | 09/05/2006

Two Lake County high school districts and an adolescent substance abuse treatment center are partnering to combat the abuse of alcohol, marijuana, heroin and other drugs among high school students.

But the target is not the kids. The target is the parents.

"Kids are bored with the 'stay away from drugs' message. They believe they have heard it too many times," said Cathy Cratty, director of student and employee assistance programs at District 113. "More importantly, research shows that parents are the number one influence on a teen's decision regarding risk-taking behaviors such as the abuse of alcohol and other drugs. So we decided to educate parents with a DVD that updates their knowledge and understanding of illegal substance abuse."

Combining the expertise of two school student assistance program directors and Rosecrance Treatment Centers, District 113's Deerfield and Highland Park High Schools, and District 117's Antioch Community and Lakes Community High Schools are distributing to the parents of all incoming freshmen a 14-minute DVD called Take the Time that encourages parents to actively influence their teenagers' decisions about alcohol and drug use.

"Parents don't realize the influence they have on their kids' decision to use drugs or alcohol, but in fact parents are the single biggest factor in a teenager's life," said Thomas E. Wright, M.D., adolescent medical director for Rosecrance. "Teenagers may say their family doesn't matter, but parents, siblings, and extended family do matter to them."

Consider these facts from Keeping Your Kids Drug Free - A How-to Guide for Parents and Caregivers which says teens are:

• 35% less likely to smoke pot if they have learned about marijuana from
  their parents.
• 50% less likely to use inhalants if they have learned about it from
  their parents.
• 56% less likely to use cocaine if they have learned about it from
  their parents.

The story of addiction is told through Tim -- a recovering teenager -- who recounts how his marijuana use plunged him into addiction that included cocaine and heroin use. His mother had believed that their lovely suburban life was untouched by the seamy and sordid world of drugs.

"I was in complete denial about my son's drug use, although he displayed all the classic symptoms, including a total change of friends," she said. "I thought it was 'just pot.' But now that I know how serious marijuana is I would have been more aggressive."

Take the Time persuades parents to be aware and educated about teen alcohol and drug abuse -- to understand that teen use has changed significantly since the 1960s and 1970s. Much more is known today about the effects of substances on the developing bodies and brains of adolescents.

"Parents have the important job of communicating this information to their children," Dr. Wright said. "But it's not a one-time conversation. Parents should develop a relationship with their children that is nurturing and built on trust. Ideally children will talk to their parents about the everyday things that are going on in their lives so that it is natural for them to have the difficult conversation about drugs and alcohol."

Echoing the recent back-to-school survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, Take the Time addresses the fact that parents often know little about how drugs and alcohol have infested their teenagers' worlds. Too often, the DVD asserts, parents are failing to provide limits needed around illegal alcohol and other drugs. But the message is clear: Parents need to have good communication with their kids, set expectations of no use of alcohol and other drugs and remember to be a parent, not their friend.

"Hopefully the DVD will help correct some false ideas," Cratty said. "With this educational tool we want parents to understand that ultimately they have the greatest influence over their children's decision regarding the use of illegal substances. So we are getting to the parents when they are the most likely to listen -- when the kids are entering high school."

About the Production of this DVD

The production of Take the Time was a collaborative effort by organizations that are concerned about the use and abuse of illegal substances by adolescents, including Township High School District 113 and Community High School District 117 in Lake County; Rosecrance Health Network, a non-profit provider of substance abuse treatment for adolescents and their families in the Greater Chicago area; and SolidLine Media in Chicago.

Buzzby

This may be true. I told my daughter all about marijuana and she still chooses to believe all the government-sponsored propaganda. She told me that all the potheads in her dorm did was lie around, goof off, and flunk out. She didn't seem to get it when I told her that these were the extreme users and that she probably never knew about the moderate users.

That's an interesting story, but far from typical. Most marijuana users don't go on to hard drugs. The "gateway" theory has been debunked over and over again. The only connection between marijuana and hard drugs is that they are sometimes sold by the same black market dealers. That's a prohibition problem, not a marijuana problem.

__________________

reggie_the_dog

"The story of addiction is told through Tim -- a recovering teenager -- who recounts how his marijuana use plunged him into addiction that included cocaine and heroin use. His mother had believed that their lovely suburban life was untouched by the seamy and sordid world of drugs."

No, sorry there little Timmy, you plunged yourself into addiction that inculded cocaine and heroin. How can marijuana have caused that? I know plenty of folks that smoke cannabis and do not use cocaine or heroin, if marijuana use caused cocaine or heroin "addiction" wouldn't I be addicted to cocaine or heroin? I don't even use these drugs, much less abuse them.

Take some responsibility for your actions Tim, you got yourself addicted to hard drugs. You chose to use them, you chose to addict yourself to them.


I smoked every day for 3 years in high school and the entire 6 years I was studying to get a BA and an MA, I make the argument that even heavy cannabis users can pass their classes. Its all about priorities, If I was not capable of studying for a given subject while high I studied it and then got high. I could never study triginomitry stoned, but history I could, so I studied math, got stoned and then studied history.

ssj3gotenks

OMG, Reggie, let me first say that I have been reading and keeping updated about prohibition through this website but have not logged in and said anything until now.

I totally feel like i just have to say this. Reggie, YOU are totally right about this. I have known tons of people who are "recovered addicts" from alcohol to hard drugs to prescription drugs who use this mj excuse for what got them started in the first place of going to the wrong path.

These people, who i call aa-ers, believe and act in many distorted ways. First of all, it's totally common sense that sole mj use, say an 1/8th of an oz per week, is much healthier than 7-14 packs of marlboros per week along with bottomless amounts of caffeine-containing beverages. Although this is not my main argument, i do feel it contributes to my point of how these people only hinder the legalization movement.

But to get to the point, it really frustrates me when I hear aa-ers disdaining mj use as much as they do. But for me to get my exact point across, consider two groups of people:

Group One: Group one consists of several responsible individuals who strive for success. They are truly friendly, moral people who consume mj on their own terms, yet know darn well that mj does nothing negative to there lives. These people have strong opinions about alcohol and hard drugs which influences their own values. Therefore, the only worry that the intelligent and superb people in group one really undergo is the fear of being in legal trouble that could potentially ruin their chances of being successful!

Group Two: Group two consists of thousands of people who have a prominent history of major substance abuse. However, it is important to note that, what distinguishes these people from group one isn't there preference in which chemicals they use to alter their state of mind, but their decisions that resulted in irresponsible, deceiving, selfish, and utterly egregious actions. Usually, these decisions were made in order to get a hold of their next "fix". Some of these people, once abstaining from these substances for whatever amount of time, go in different directions, which is expressed in the following types (please note there are more types, but the ones listed below are those which seem first-hand to be the most oftenly occuring):
Type A: Those that are still actively using these substances, yet now operate under moral standards, or in other words, still use but have truly "learned their lessons" about violence, stealing, fraud, and other means of getting high again.
Type B: "Truly Recovering" - These are people who abstain from all usage (except of course for nicotine and caffeine in most cases). Although several of these people are known for either admitting themselves to treatment centers and/or attending 12-step programs, some do this through religious organizations, e.g. church. However, the similarity that links almost all of these people together is that they had a severe "bottom", or an event that resulted in an epiphany that they needed to change their lives.
Type C: Abstinence/Recovery on their own terms - These are the people that when you ask, "How did you quit", they will likely tell you, "I just did". IMO, these people, in contrast to the other two types, are the real heroes, which I will explain in my personal opinions paragraph below.

Btw, Notice that there is not a type for people that almost identical with Type A who were involved in hard substances, but now only use cannabis. There are many people that do this, which IMO is reasonable. But personally I believe these people fit more into Group One.


Now this is where I would like to place my opinion, based on my viewpoints and experience. As you can probably tell, I have a ton of respect for Group One and Type C of group two. But more specifically, I have true respect for anyone that does what's best for them that will at the same time not have a negative rebound effect for other people! For example, when a person steals a 6-digit monetary amount of money from her b/f and/or parents, that is obviously selfish. But going back to little Timmy, when a person he is NOT the only person who is a "recovering" addict to make a news statement that in some way or another advocates for prohibition. From my experience, I have seen a ton of people in Type B (the 12-step ones), who have both blamed mj for the start of things AND have even ratted on their friends as a way for many different reasons, whether it be to parents or LEOs. Blaming a sacred plant or a person who used it just to get yourself out of trouble or to get pleasure/emotional gain out of seing a responsible mj user get a bad rep when they had nothing to do with your life [b]is selfish[b].

Secondly, the other piece of my opinion focuses more on the turnout of Group One vs. Group Two, Type B. As we all know, there tons of people in our country who have outstanding jobs and can responisbly use cannabis. On the other hand, I can't tell you how many people in group two, type B that are totally abstinant, yet still live with mommy and daddy working a Starbucks the rest of their lives. I can't tell you how many people in g2tB that continually get fired from their jobs because they just are bad workers.

So in conclusion, I have a real problem with blaming mj on people's problems. it's time people started to [b]take responsbility[b] of their own lives.

Lothar121

I think it depends on the person. Some people are more capable than others of using cannabis without serious problems. There is no sense in denying that a minority (9%) experience dependence issues with cannabis. It should be noted this dependence is less severe than dependence on other recreational drugs, but it still exists.

Some people that are heavy users of cannabis can handle it better than others where it may affect their study habits more severely. We all are different in our own particular way. This is not to say that some of the blame is not on the person themself.

It is worth noting that I'm confining myself to talking about heavy use which I would consider multiple smoke sessions a day. Obviously moderate users would be less likely to experience any type of ill effects.

__________________

Donate. Write. Make a difference.. Posting Guidelines | Marijuana Policy Project | NORML | DPA | Drug WarRant | Media Awareness Project

Buzzby

I would contest this. Because of The Tolerance Factor, people who smoke constantly don't get the kind of confusing, disabling high that occasional smokers or once-daily smokers can get.

I know this from personal experience, as I used to do carpentry for a group of pot dealers who smoked all the time. I'd sit down to smoke with them at the end of a day's work, take a few hits of their superweed, and be fried, paralyzed, and speechless. They'd smoke four times as much, had been smoking all day, and would be apparently unaffected.