What they’re saying about marijuana use: even a little is too much.
Teens sample marijuana, sometimes as early as middle school. Some parents believe early experimentation is mostly harmless. Others may look at this gateway drug and realize their teen’s usage of this “recreational” substance was a step on the path toward more serious drug and/or alcohol abuse.
How tempting it is to say or think, “My child is only smoking pot—it could be much worse.” But it’s not that simple.
The facts are familiar and clear. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says Cannabis sativa’s active chemical—delta-9- tetrohydrocannabinol aka THC—causes distorted perception, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving and problems with learning and memory. Moreover, marijuana smoke contains 50-70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke. Studies have not proven the link between marijuana smoke and lung cancer, but users do show signs of respiratory distress similar to what smokers experience: phlegm production and frequent coughing, more frequent acute chest illness and heightened risk of lung infections.
Consider these statements, too, on THC’s other negative effects, from the San Diego Alcohol and Drug Treatment program Lasting Recovery, a nationally accredited one located in Sorrento Valley:
“Marijuana is not a harmless drug and used by teens, when their brains are forming, is setting the baseline for a lifetime of attraction to mind and mood altering chemicals as a way to deal with boredom, loneliness, stress, frustration and other normal life experiences….(Young users) were changing their brain chemistry to an uncontrollable dependency on chemicals to mask their feeling and block their problem solving abilities, effecting all areas of their lives.”
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released in 2007, 14.4 million Americans aged 12 or older used marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed. Date indicates that users were primarily male (73.8 percent), White (51.5 percent), and young (36.1 percent were in the 15-19 age range.) And how about this: the 2008 National Survey on Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIII provided scary statistics on the availability of pot for teenagers: 42 percent of 12-17 year-olds said they could obtain (buy) marijuana within a day or less.
So it’s out there and it’s not good—even though much of society tries to downplay the harmful effects. For some casual users or those who need it for medical purposes, it may very well be the case that pot is relatively harmless and possibly even helpful if used in a controlled setting for a specific purpose. However, for a child or teen predisposed to addiction, even a little is too much.
Will marijuana be legalized here in Wisconsin, as California is proposing to do? Will that stop the problem of teen usage or make it worse? Time will tell.
The organization Because I Love You is a national group dedicated to supporting parents with troubled teens. Their website gives good advice on approaching the problem of pot (or any drug) usage from another angle: reduce stress and improve on problem-solving skills, both important keys for safe emotional development. Their list of “Ways to Reduce Stress Step-by-Step” is geared toward parents, but the suggestions are universally applicable and could help a teen make a better choice than to light up. My favorite is # 3: Stop being a perfectionist.
The website also includes a section called “Helping Teens with Stress” and “10 Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School.” Check it their reference library at: bily.org
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Article on Horizon in Madison Newspaper
Please go to Madison.com and read and comment on the front page article on Horizon High, Dane County's Only Recovery School.
www.madison.com
one can register and comment and show their support,
This is a good way to publicize the one of the only aftercare programs for teens with substance use disorders.
check out www.horizonhs.org for more information
www.madison.com
one can register and comment and show their support,
This is a good way to publicize the one of the only aftercare programs for teens with substance use disorders.
check out www.horizonhs.org for more information
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Horizon High Students Speak at the Wisconsin Association of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Conference
Congratulations and thanks go out to several local teenagers who participated in a panel discussion on recovery schools at the Wisconsin Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse conference in Middleton Tuesday, May 11. Amy Sanchez, Connor Johnson and Sam Doctor shared their stories and talked about how recovery schooling has helped them succeed. Their involvement shows real dedication and insight. Way to go!
Unfortunately, involved teenagers like Amy, Connor and Sam, who are able to talk about their experiences with alcohol and drugs, are still the exception to the “Don’t talk, don’t tell” rule. And that, experts agree, should not be the case.
Surveys prove—and anyone who spends time with teenagers will confirm—that usage is not a hot topic of discussion. But recent news points to the importance of bringing up the subject anyway, for the health of your teen. And doctors, it turns out, can play an important role in getting the conversation started if parents are struggling.
Last month a national pediatrics organization issued a policy statement confirming that frank talks between teens and their doctors might prove to be a crucial step in stopping harmful behaviors.
The Committee on Substance Abuse for the American Academy of Pediatrics, based in San Antonio, Texas encourages early screening—starting at the middle school level—to determine potential alcohol abuse. If followed up by helpful discussions on strategies to avoid drinking and how to seek help, this could protect teenagers from permanent brain damage, which could include future organizational, memory and emotional problems.
Dr. Patricia Kokotailo, director of adolescent medicine and associate dean for faculty development and faculty affairs at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said the policy statement “provides better evidence about how alcohol affects the brains of young people and why it is important to screen children.”
“A remarkable amount of brain development is still occurring for young people through their 20s,” said Dr. Kokotailo, the lead author of the study.
Few teenagers think about the long-term consequences of early alcohol consumption. And while it may not be easy to get the conversation going, enlisting a family doctor to help is a step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, involved teenagers like Amy, Connor and Sam, who are able to talk about their experiences with alcohol and drugs, are still the exception to the “Don’t talk, don’t tell” rule. And that, experts agree, should not be the case.
Surveys prove—and anyone who spends time with teenagers will confirm—that usage is not a hot topic of discussion. But recent news points to the importance of bringing up the subject anyway, for the health of your teen. And doctors, it turns out, can play an important role in getting the conversation started if parents are struggling.
Last month a national pediatrics organization issued a policy statement confirming that frank talks between teens and their doctors might prove to be a crucial step in stopping harmful behaviors.
The Committee on Substance Abuse for the American Academy of Pediatrics, based in San Antonio, Texas encourages early screening—starting at the middle school level—to determine potential alcohol abuse. If followed up by helpful discussions on strategies to avoid drinking and how to seek help, this could protect teenagers from permanent brain damage, which could include future organizational, memory and emotional problems.
Dr. Patricia Kokotailo, director of adolescent medicine and associate dean for faculty development and faculty affairs at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said the policy statement “provides better evidence about how alcohol affects the brains of young people and why it is important to screen children.”
“A remarkable amount of brain development is still occurring for young people through their 20s,” said Dr. Kokotailo, the lead author of the study.
Few teenagers think about the long-term consequences of early alcohol consumption. And while it may not be easy to get the conversation going, enlisting a family doctor to help is a step in the right direction.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Speak Out for Alternative Education
Here's what I said on the capital steps, 12:15 Saturday.
Hi, I am Jan Fulwiler, I am a psychologist, and I strongly support alternative education.
I am here to speak our to Horizon High School, Dane County's Only Recovery School
Imagine you are 16 years old, you have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder, you go to 3 weeks of treatment. It is your first day back at your school. All your friends that you used to use with are very glad to see you are back, and welcome you back by offering alcohol and other drugs to you at school. What do you do?
If you don't think this scene is happening everyday in our schools in Dane County you are sadly mistaken. Hazelton did a survey of recoverying teens and found that 97% were offered alcohol and other drugs at school, their very first day back from treatment. No wonder relapse is seen as a normal part of adolescent recovery.
"Sending a teen back to their original high school is like sending an adult alcoholic back to their favorite bar for six ours a day and expecting them to sta sober.
substance abuse disorders are chronic progressive diseases that need continuing care. Like diabetes, you don't just treat it for 3 weeks and expect it to go away. Without aftercare, of course, teens will relapse it is like denying insulin to a diabetic.
I know this from personal experience because I used to work for a wilderness therapy program and treatment boarding schools. We knew if a teen had to return to their original high school they would relapse. It was only a question of time.
Dane County needs to step up tp the plate and take responsibility for helping teens with substance abuses disorders. We have an especiallly poor record. Nationally only 10% of all teens swith this disorder get treatment, in Dane County only 1.5%. And everytime another child dies of an overdose, I think of that Bob Dylan song, blowin in the wind.
"How many deaths will it take till they know that too many people have died?"
This seems so seneless because their is an answer- Recovery Schools.
What are they? Separate learning communities that provide peer support for sobriety, experientia education, counseling and accoutability, randome drug testing to support the teens in their sobriety.
Research shows that these schools work. Relapse rates are much lower and attendence and graduation much higher for students who attend these schools. Many of our students say they never would have completed high school without Horizon. Their parents say these students might not even be still alive.
Horizon was started 5 years ago by parents and treatment professional who were tired of losing kids to overdoses and took action and created a resource that works. In the five years we have been in existence we have helped over 40 families with teens with substance abuse disorders.
Horizon is a the only private, non-profit recovery school in the Midwest. Minnesota has 12 such schools all state supported. Why are we private because 5 years ago it would have been impossible for us to get a charter school in Madison, Wisconsin, and even today we can't find a school district in Dane County that will sponsor a charter school application.
Horizon supporters didn't want to argue, they wanted to save lives, and we have done more than that, we help teens succeed in sobriety, school and life.
Want to know more? Want to help? Know someone who needs our school? Check out our website at www.horizonhs.org or our face book page, Horizon High, Dane County's Only Recovery School, join our cause.
Hi, I am Jan Fulwiler, I am a psychologist, and I strongly support alternative education.
I am here to speak our to Horizon High School, Dane County's Only Recovery School
Imagine you are 16 years old, you have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder, you go to 3 weeks of treatment. It is your first day back at your school. All your friends that you used to use with are very glad to see you are back, and welcome you back by offering alcohol and other drugs to you at school. What do you do?
If you don't think this scene is happening everyday in our schools in Dane County you are sadly mistaken. Hazelton did a survey of recoverying teens and found that 97% were offered alcohol and other drugs at school, their very first day back from treatment. No wonder relapse is seen as a normal part of adolescent recovery.
"Sending a teen back to their original high school is like sending an adult alcoholic back to their favorite bar for six ours a day and expecting them to sta sober.
substance abuse disorders are chronic progressive diseases that need continuing care. Like diabetes, you don't just treat it for 3 weeks and expect it to go away. Without aftercare, of course, teens will relapse it is like denying insulin to a diabetic.
I know this from personal experience because I used to work for a wilderness therapy program and treatment boarding schools. We knew if a teen had to return to their original high school they would relapse. It was only a question of time.
Dane County needs to step up tp the plate and take responsibility for helping teens with substance abuses disorders. We have an especiallly poor record. Nationally only 10% of all teens swith this disorder get treatment, in Dane County only 1.5%. And everytime another child dies of an overdose, I think of that Bob Dylan song, blowin in the wind.
"How many deaths will it take till they know that too many people have died?"
This seems so seneless because their is an answer- Recovery Schools.
What are they? Separate learning communities that provide peer support for sobriety, experientia education, counseling and accoutability, randome drug testing to support the teens in their sobriety.
Research shows that these schools work. Relapse rates are much lower and attendence and graduation much higher for students who attend these schools. Many of our students say they never would have completed high school without Horizon. Their parents say these students might not even be still alive.
Horizon was started 5 years ago by parents and treatment professional who were tired of losing kids to overdoses and took action and created a resource that works. In the five years we have been in existence we have helped over 40 families with teens with substance abuse disorders.
Horizon is a the only private, non-profit recovery school in the Midwest. Minnesota has 12 such schools all state supported. Why are we private because 5 years ago it would have been impossible for us to get a charter school in Madison, Wisconsin, and even today we can't find a school district in Dane County that will sponsor a charter school application.
Horizon supporters didn't want to argue, they wanted to save lives, and we have done more than that, we help teens succeed in sobriety, school and life.
Want to know more? Want to help? Know someone who needs our school? Check out our website at www.horizonhs.org or our face book page, Horizon High, Dane County's Only Recovery School, join our cause.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Horizon Joins Speak Out for Alternative Education this Saturday, Noon on the Square
Horizon High joins Speak Out Saturday in Madison on behalf of alternative education.
Do you care about alternative schooling? Madison-area supporters of alternative programs, including Horizon High School—Dane County’s only recovery school—are voicing their concerns and sharing thoughts on the need for alternatives to traditional schooling. You can join us Saturday May 15 at noon on the steps of the Capitol building downtown and Speak Out. Anyone who wishes to talk to the public about this issue will have an opportunity to do so. Check-in will take place at the State Street corner and the speaker list will start at 11:30. (Please limit your address to 2-5 minutes.) You will receive a t-shirt and number upon signing up.
If you’re concerned about the direction our schools have taken regarding students at risk—Dane County alone has 700-900 dropouts every year—then come and take a stand for non-traditional education. If you believe in experimental education or think different learning styles may call for different teaching environments, we need your voice, too.
What a difference a transition schools can make for students at-promise. We see this every day at Horizon High School. In the five years we have operated we have helped more than 40 students. These students were disenchanted with school and often weren’t attending school and were using alcohol and other drugs. At Horizon High, we’ve seen them become reengaged and succeed.
Dane County Transition School director Judith Reed recently related the story of two sisters with a shared past of abuse who take different paths in life. One receives the option of attending an alternative school for two and a half years; the other, expelled from her district repeatedly, was not given access to an alternative school and continues to struggle. A quote from that story:
“While Sara has learned to grow from trauma, Teresa is being pushed further into a dark, desolate hole…Teresa deserves to learn, grown and become a productive person.”
Want to read the full story? Click here. http://www.dcsc.org/dcts/index.html
The facts are there. Every 26 seconds a student in our nation drops out of school. Events like Saturday’s Speak Out aim to bring awareness to this problem and point toward possible solutions. To RSVP please e-mail www.dctsalternative@gmail.com
Do you care about alternative schooling? Madison-area supporters of alternative programs, including Horizon High School—Dane County’s only recovery school—are voicing their concerns and sharing thoughts on the need for alternatives to traditional schooling. You can join us Saturday May 15 at noon on the steps of the Capitol building downtown and Speak Out. Anyone who wishes to talk to the public about this issue will have an opportunity to do so. Check-in will take place at the State Street corner and the speaker list will start at 11:30. (Please limit your address to 2-5 minutes.) You will receive a t-shirt and number upon signing up.
If you’re concerned about the direction our schools have taken regarding students at risk—Dane County alone has 700-900 dropouts every year—then come and take a stand for non-traditional education. If you believe in experimental education or think different learning styles may call for different teaching environments, we need your voice, too.
What a difference a transition schools can make for students at-promise. We see this every day at Horizon High School. In the five years we have operated we have helped more than 40 students. These students were disenchanted with school and often weren’t attending school and were using alcohol and other drugs. At Horizon High, we’ve seen them become reengaged and succeed.
Dane County Transition School director Judith Reed recently related the story of two sisters with a shared past of abuse who take different paths in life. One receives the option of attending an alternative school for two and a half years; the other, expelled from her district repeatedly, was not given access to an alternative school and continues to struggle. A quote from that story:
“While Sara has learned to grow from trauma, Teresa is being pushed further into a dark, desolate hole…Teresa deserves to learn, grown and become a productive person.”
Want to read the full story? Click here. http://www.dcsc.org/dcts/index.html
The facts are there. Every 26 seconds a student in our nation drops out of school. Events like Saturday’s Speak Out aim to bring awareness to this problem and point toward possible solutions. To RSVP please e-mail www.dctsalternative@gmail.com
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Neuroscience that suggests all high schools should be sober high schools!
The Teenage Brain and Alcohol and Other Drugs
Check out this article from the New York Times on alcohol and the developing brain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/health/04teen.html
Here is a quote
Check out this article from the New York Times on alcohol and the developing brain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/health/04teen.html
Here is a quote
The new findings may help explain why people who begin drinking at an early age face enormous risks of becoming alcoholics. According to the results of a national survey of 43,093 adults, published yesterday in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 47 percent of those who begin drinking alcohol before the age of 14 become alcohol dependent at some time in their lives, compared with 9 percent of those who wait at least until age 21. The correlation holds even when genetic risks for alcoholism are taken into account.
What is so upsetting about this finding is that children are starting to drink at earlier and earlier ages
Here are some statistics on teens and drinking
The average age when youth first try alcohol is 11 years for boys and 13 years for girls.
By age 14, 41 percent of children have had least one drink.
The average age at which Americans begin drinking regularly is 15.9 years old.
Teens who begin drinking before age 15 are five times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who begin drinking at age 21.
An early age of drinking onset is also associated with alcohol-related violence not only among persons under age 21 but among adults as well.
It has been estimated that over three million teenagers are out-and-out alcoholics. Several million more have a serious drinking problem that they cannot manage on their own.Binge drinking, often beginning around age 13, tends to increase during adolescence, peak in young adulthood (ages 18-22), then gradually decrease. Individuals who increase their binge drinking from age 18 to 24 and those who consistently binge drink at least once a week during this period may have problems attaining the goals typical of the transition from adolescence to young adulthood (e.g., marriage, educational attainment, employment, and financial independence).
These are national statistics. Wisconsin rates number 2 in the nation for underage drinking.
When you read the science one wonders why are we all so complacent?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)