KH 3000

Presented by: Leonede Buller Mishinda DeBose B.Jermaine Price Edricka Burnett Towanda Smith Shameika Averett

M

arijuana is a green, brown, or gray mixture of dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant.

Also known as pot, herb, grass, weed, boom, Mary Jane, gangster, reefer, blunt, or chronic and some 200 others

• Regular • Chronic • mid-grade • Hydro • Hashish

Types

• Purple • Cali Skunk • Indo • Sinsemilla • Fry

How is it Used?

• Usually smoked as a cigarette rolled, hand made (called a joint or a nail), in pipe or a bong. Has recently appeared in cigars called blunts and spliffs.

Marijuana is on the Rise Among Middle School Age Students

Why?

• Increase in availability of marijuana and other drugs • Teens being misguided about marijuana as being a natural product.

• They’re unaware of the mood-altering and physiological effects.

• Has become some-what accepted by society through media and radio waves

Why?

• Less expensive of all drugs, next to alcohol.

• As stated by Insel and Roth, “One reason for our society’s concern with the casual or recreational use of illegal drugs is that it’s not really possible to know when drug use will lead to abuse or dependence.”

Reason for its use

• Peer Pressure – because friends or siblings use it • Family influence – because they see older people in family using it • Listening to music and songs that refer to its use.

• Belief of escaping form problems at home, school, or with friends

Warning Signs Parents Should Look For…

• Increasing agitation and irritability • Loss of motivation and interest in previously enjoyed activities • Decreased attention span and increased distracted behavior • Red or glassy eyes, extreme fatigue, and poor health • A loss of motivation and interest in previously enjoyed activities

• A significant weight gain or loss • Withdrawal from former friends who do not use drugs • Failure to acquire age-appropriate social skills • Depression, confusion, and mood swings • Changes in likes and dislikes to a more conventional style (such as with music, hair, and clothing

Short Term Effects …

the effects of Marijuana are influenced by users expectations and past experiences

• Low Dosage – Euphoria, heighten of subjective sensory experiences, hallucinations, fantasies, paranoia, laid-back attitude • Moderate dosage – Dryness of the mouth, reddening of the eyes, impaired motor skills and memory function, lapse of attention, frequent hunger attacks “munchies”, and feelings of depersonalization

Does marijuana affect school, sports, driving, and other activities?

• Biggest hazard for teens: Marijuana makes them mess up in school, sports, clubs, or with friends.

• When high, more likely to make stupid mistakes.

• Strong link between drug use and unsafe sex leading to spread of HIV • Lost of energy, interest and impaired vision • Timing, coordination, alertness, and performance all affected

Long term effects

• Bronchitis, emphysema, bronchial asthma, soar throats, coughs, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, increased heart rate, increased risk to lungs, short term memory, glaucoma, suppresses immune system • reproductive system (decrease in testosterone, decreased sperm count, abnormality of sperm, impaired fetal growth and development), physical dependency, leads to subsequent use of cocaine and heroine

Statistics

• About 1 – 5 8th graders report they are current marijuana users (used within past month) • Is the most widely used illegal drug in U.S. (more than 30 % of Americans, about 67 million, have tried it at least once) • According to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) states that among youths age 12-17, 10.9% reported past month use of illicit drugs in ’99. • 7.7 % of youths were current users in 1999

Effects on the Brain

• The chemicals travel through bloodstream and attach to special places on brain’s nerve cells (receptors) • THC disrupts nerve cells in part of brain where memories are found, making it harder for user to recall recent events and hard to learn while high.

• Toll taken on mental functions

Availability

• According to study, 50% of 13 year olds reported they could find and purchase marijuana.

• From peers (others that are older) • Today it is available in all walks of life (metropolitan, suburban, and rural areas) • Can be purchased for as little as $5 • Those that distribute marijuana have now become your next door neighbor or mutual friend

Overall Usage

• Abuse of Alcohol or Other Controlled Substances for Persons 12-17 years of age in 1994 -1995

20 15 10 5 0 TOTAL FEMALE 1994 1995

S

ocietal Effects

• Society sends kids

mixed messages

about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs • Kids see and hear messages intended for adults – misinterpret them as being for kids • We, society, mourns for rock stars who die from overdoses then kids believe all role models use drugs and its okay to use drugs

Television

• Before age 10, a child has seen about 12,000 hours – approx. 17 commercials per hour, so they have seen over 200,000 commercials by 10 th birthday • About 25% commercials have been for over-the counter drugs – in turn kids see 50,000 O-T-C before reaching age 10 – before developing moral reasoning needed to process the reasoning.

Music

Artists

• Bob Marley – Reggae • The Grateful Dead – Rock • Cheech and Chong – Hispanic • Smashing Pumpkins and Metallica – Heavy Metal • Snoop Doggy Dog – Rap • Erykah Badu - R&B

S

olutions

What parents could do to help…

• Be good role models. Parents need to model their behavior the way they expect their children to behave. • Stay involved with your children. Staying involved keeps parents more aware of any changed behavior.

• Educating children about drugs.

What parents can do to help

…

• Don’t make it easy. Never assume that your children supervised appropriately. Know where they are and who their with.

• Build a strong and resilient relationship. • If you suspect your child has a drug problem, seek help immediately.

As far as Media is Concerned…

• Carefully planned mass media campaigns can reduce substance abuse by countering false perceptions that drug use is normative • Also by influencing personal beliefs that motivate drug use • Having media programs work in conjunction with other community – and school-based anti-drug programs

Prevention Program

• D.A.R.E. (Drug Awareness Resistance Education) is a school and community based program strives for the prevention of drug use and violence among secondary education students. • Their focus is on problem identification, analysis, and utilization of systematic problem solving techniques together with strong community partnership as a means to achieve more effective long-term solutions to persistent drug use and gang violence

Prevention Program

• The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is an organization that targets youth ages 9-18 (especially the vulnerable middle-school adolescents) through the use of various media to educate and empower young people to reject illicit drugs.

• The Campaign uses a mix of modern communications techniques – from advertising and public relations to Interactive media – and all possible venues – from television programs to after-school activities – to enlist and engage people in prevention efforts at school, work, and at play.

Treatment

The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and The National Institute on Drug Abuse 1. Discovering what can be done to help client write a prescription for clinical progress and move along a continuum toward, if not abstinence, then measurable improvement.

2. Engagement- one coming forth with problem

Treatment

3. Create an environment in which patients are motivated, are invested in their own recovery, recognize incentives and disincentives of behavior, and accept the consequences of behavior 4. Creating an environment in which healing can take place, where there is consistency leadership and research

Summary

• Being an adolescent is a risk factor for trying illicit drugs (especially marijuana) which further leads to habitual usage • Percentage on a rise due to availability and lack of awareness about marijuana • Media and radio have come to play and increasingly important role in raising our children and leading to the mis-education about drugs and alcohol

It is a social activity, and Teens are at a loss for Social activities right now.

“When you go to a concert Or go dancing, the thing to Do is smoke dope.

Rebecca Carpenter, 15

Lincoln High student (Portland, Oregon) “It is easy to do, easy to grow, easy to get and easy to sell”