Students learn firsthand the effects of substance abuse

It's not often you can teach a student what it's actually like to have your motor skills significantly reduced by substance abuse, but Community Connections discovered a clever way to do just that.

More than 300 students from Adams Middle School attended a special presentation on substance abuse prevention by Community Connections in honor of National Red Ribbon Week, a national week of substance abuse prevention awareness.

Community Connections provided a presentation on Kiki Camarena, who died in the line of duty as an agent of the Drug Enforcement Agency, to the students at Adams Middle School on Wednesday. The presentation also focused on the ill effects of using alcohol and tobacco with statistical reminders that both can be deadly habits.

Drug abuse and alcohol abuse, in particular, was the focus of a special demonstration where a group of students lined up for a unique relay race. The first time through, students unwrapped a Hershey's Kiss as fast as they could. The second time through, however, the students had to wear a pair of mittens to perform the same function, which effectively slowed down their progress in the same fashion as it would if the student were impaired.

"It was a lot harder the second time," said 12-year-old Chanelle Hanger. "It felt weird and I felt like I wasn't myself."

Exactly the point, said Community Connections substance abuse prevention coordinator Jill Tetherow who talked to the students about how alcohol impacts brain function. While the demonstration gave an example of what it's like to perform a simple function while impaired, Tetherow said the overall presentation needed to include conversation about "other drugs."

"We are seeing a lot of use of over-the-counter drugs by our teens and by our youth in general," said Tetherow. "Cough medicine in particular is becoming a problem. It's easy to get in our medicine cabinets, but it's getting to the point where we are seeing a lot of kids stealing cough medicine from local stores. They are too young to buy it, so they feel the need to steal it or like alcohol, are starting to find buyers who will get it for them."

Tetherow reminded students that over-the-counter medicines can be just as dangerous as any other drug and overdosing on these drugs is a very real possibility.

Community Connections Tobacco Free Lincoln County coordinator Bonnie Thompson talked about the dangers of starting smoking, reminding students that 434,000 people die each year due to tobacco-related illnesses. It's not surprising, Thompson said, considering that there are more than 4,0000 chemicals in cigarettes, 40 of which are known to cause cancer.

Community Connections focuses on all sorts of tobacco, drug and alcohol issues and have put forth a concentrated effort over the last couple of years in regards to prescription medicines, which are also now included in their presentations to area students. Thompson said interacting with the students on a personal level is the only way to ensure that the message is getting across.

"We emphasize the importance of Red Ribbon Week with our youth and want them to understand how it all got started with a real life hero," said Thompson. "We also emphasize the things that we see are impacting our communities, which is why we began talking more about prescription drug abuse and over-the-counter drug abuse. There is a lot of efforts going on at the local level to address these problems."

Mark Young reports for The North Platte Telegraph

Current Rating: 4 of 1 votes!

Rate File: Select Rating: * ** *** ****