Passion, Connections Combat Drug Addictions

LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER E-cigarettes was one of the topics discussed at a forum on alcohol and drug use last week in Prairie Grove. This slide in the presentation shows how some e-cigarettes look like flash drives. The use of e-cigarettes has many names, such as "Juuling," shown above, modding and dripping.
LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER E-cigarettes was one of the topics discussed at a forum on alcohol and drug use last week in Prairie Grove. This slide in the presentation shows how some e-cigarettes look like flash drives. The use of e-cigarettes has many names, such as "Juuling," shown above, modding and dripping.

PRAIRIE GROVE -- The number one reason children and teens experiment with drugs and alcohol is because they are bored, an expert trainer on drug prevention and drug trends told Prairie Grove teachers, parents and other community members at a drug forum last week.

Stephanie Siete, director of Community Education with Community Bridges Inc. in Arizona, was the featured speaker at a community forum on drug and alcohol use held at Prairie Grove High School on Thursday night.

About 50 people attended the forum. Siete titled her program, "Being In the Know" because she wants the public to be informed and educated about drug use. Siete has worked with Community Bridges for 15 years and trains police departments, the FBI and other agencies on drug trends, signs and symptoms.

Siete said kids need something to be passionate about, whether it is sports, reading, the arts, music or writing. She encouraged parents and adults to help children invest their lives in a certain passion so they will make good decisions.

Parents and adults have to be good role models and can expand their range of influence to have an impact on many children and teens, she said.

The average age a child starts experimenting with drugs and alcohol is 12.5 years old, Siete said. She recommends parents talk to their children about drugs and alcohol and making good decisions as young as 2 and 3 years of age. This should be a continuous conversation and especially should be revisited at ages 17 and 18, when teenagers are leaving home for college or other endeavors, she added.

Siete spent most of her talk telling parents about the abuse of prescription drugs, how the use of marijuana has changed over the years and the increased use of e-cigarettes.

"Opiate use is our crisis in America," Siete said.

Statistics show that 52,000 people died from drugs in 2015 and, of those deaths, 33,000 were the result of opiates or prescription drugs.

"Our legal drugs are destroying us," she told those at the forum. "One in four who are legitimately prescribed opiates will suffer from addiction."

Prescription drugs are the gateway drug to other uses, Siete said.

"It starts in the home because parents give it to their children because it's prescribed by a doctor," she said, noting "legal does not mean safe."

Many pills today look like candy, are accessible at parties and are acceptable according to social norms in the media, she said.

E-cigarette use declined in 2016, she said, but from 2013 to 2014, experts saw the use of e-cigarettes triple among middle school and high school students. The uses have many names, such as dripping, juling and modding. E-cigarettes use liquid nicotine that comes out as a vapor.

Some of the slides in Siete's presentation showed e-cigarettes that looked like a flash drive or a cell phone. Students can just push a button and the vaporized nicotine will come out.

She also showed pictures of where an e-cigarette had exploded, either in a person's mouth, in their hands or in a purse.

Turning to marijuana, Siete said old school marijuana, a bag of grass weed, has been replaced by much more potent marijuana. In many instances today, marijuana is produced through a method to extract the essential oils from the marijuana plant.

"People want to talk about 'then." We don't live in 'then.' We live in now," she said.

In the 1970s, marijuana had 2 percent of the ingredient called THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical responsible for most of marijuana's psychological effects. The new marijuana today can have 90 percent of THC, Siete said.

Marijuana is being used in many forms, in drinks, cookies, candy, brownies.

"Marijuana edibles look like candy today," she said. "No one can tell that it has marijuana in it."

She gave numerous examples of teenagers and adults who abused the more potent marijuana and committed suicide or murdered others.

"Most people are not familiar with new marijuana and its potency and the amount of high levels it has. The stories are coming out."

Siete's main message to those at the forum was to urge them to share the information with others and educate others.

"We're talking about communities. This is not a victimless crime," she said.

The opposite of addiction is connection, she said, noting that communities need to connect with each other, not through social media, but to have real-life connections that can make a difference in someone's life.

General News on 03/01/2017