What if?
(We actually educated our kids about the danger of drugs)
Eighty-five percent of the prison population has an active substance use disorder or was incarcerated for a drug use crime.*
Let that sink in.
Drug use continues to proliferate. It destroys young lives, and impacts health, and brain function as it creates physical and psychological dependence, often leading to criminal offenses.
What if we—at least—provided the facts to children in school about the dangers and outcomes of drug and alcohol dependency? I’m not an educator, but as a mother and grandmother, I know that children are most receptive to learn in their early years.
Start with storybooks at age 3 about someone who tried a bad drug and became sick. At age four, talk about how a substance kept a promising athlete from doing his or her best. As the years go by, incrementally, you have the 12-year-olds receiving straight talk about how today's marijuana is four times stronger, and its dangerous THC levels are linked to deterioration of brain function and a greater probability of psychosis and schizophrenia.
Remember the courses aimed at reducing teen pregnancy? They gave freshman girls five-pound bags of flour wrapped in a blanket that was their “baby” to take care of. They had to produce a record where the baby had been, who it had been with, and how it was cared for. For some, the program was a joke, but real babies born to teen mothers are more likely to be premature, have a low birth weight, and even to die. The effort was not a joke. And, for a many, it was an eye-opening exercise in the reality of infant caregiving. In fact there were many young girls who changed their minds about becoming a teen mother.
Now we are faced with ever increasing death, ill health and incarceration due to substance abuse. Considering that prevention classes would be saving young lives, we ought to make them part of the program in every school and at every grade level. We all know someone who has tragically lost a child due to substance use. What are we waiting for? If all our schools included such a program, we absolutely would reduce drug and substance addiction. By how much? I don’t know. But what if we tried?
Operation Prevention is a leader in producing high quality programs for students of every age, starting with the difference between the drugs a doctor prescribes and the ones that can hurt us. The programs are custom-designed for grades one through 12, with all the resources needed to integrate seamlessly into classroom instruction. Through a series of hands-on investigations, students explore the science behind substance misuse and the resulting impacts on their brains and bodies.
Every school has mandatory courses: This should be one of them. Until then, moms and dads can start with Operation Prevention’s Parent Guide. Together, parents and teachers can reduce the growing numbers of lost youth in Indiana.
This is our state’s best next step,
Nancy
*National Institute On Drug Abuse
