Help the Hills, Safe and Healthy Homewood host informational night

Dozens of parents, educators and even a handful of students gathered Monday night to learn about “Navigating Teen Culture.”

On Samford University’s campus, Help the Hills and Safe and Healthy Homewood co-hosted an informational night on the current issues faced by teens and their families. The night included keynote speaker Dr. Bertha K. Madras, a member of the President’s Opioid Council and breakout sessions on a variety of topics relating to social media, drug and alcohol use and preparing teens for the next step in life.

Madras, who is a professor of psychobiology at Harvard Medical School, centered her keynote address on marijuana and other drugs, as well as their effect on the teenage mind.

Adolescents are especially vulnerable to the effects of drugs and chemicals, as their minds are still changing. Between ages 5-20, Madras said, the brain is reorganizing, pruning old connections and developing in other ways.

“We know this is one of the most critical points of development,” she said.

To a developing mind, drugs act as “imposters” of natural brain chemicals, Madras said, which mimic the effects of those chemicals and can also decrease the body’s natural supply of those chemicals.

“The message that they produce is very different than our own natural messages,” Madras said, “and that gives rise to a whole cascade of events that can give rise to addiction, that can give rise to changes in behavior, changes in motivation, changes in who that person is in brain and body and behavior.”

In their teenage years, adolescents’ minds are not only vulnerable to the effects of drugs, but social influences can make them vulnerable to the temptation of drugs as well, Madras said. They face pressures from friends and peers, in addition to various stressors.

“They use drugs to feel good,” Madras said of teens. “They use drugs to alleviate anxiety, worries, fears and stress. It’s called the self-medication hypothesis.”

Using drugs, however, can have the opposite effect, she said. By using drugs and affecting their brain’s natural chemistry, it can lead to a reduction in dopamine — a neurotransmitter that elicits a positive feeling — and therefore lead individuals to desire using more drugs to combat the reduction in dopamine.

In addition to those risk factors, Madras said the topic of marijuana is also controversial and politically charged. There are people who advocate for legalization and the “harmlessness” of marijuana, she said, but she combatted some of the more popular arguments.

The argument that marijuana is “just a plant,” she said, disregards that there are several poisonous plants that can do harm, in addition to more than 700 chemicals found in marijuana itself.

Despite those factors, she said, marijuana use is seen as harmless by many.

“With marijuana, it is the one drug that youth fear the least, and the sense of risk is declining,” Madras said.

Madras also cited several studies that showed potential links between marijuana and the development of psychological disorders, a lower IQ, a higher likelihood to drop out of school and an increased risk of using other drugs.

“Just to summarize — the BAD-APS. This is my acronym: Brain changes, addiction, deficits — cognitive deficits — a-motivation, psychosis and clearly there are safety issues involved,” Madras said.

The night also included multiple breakout sessions, which covered topics such as preparing children for “the next step” in life, legal implications of teen drug and alcohol use, social media, vaping and a Q&A session with Madras.

In the session centered on social media, Abbey McManus with Bradford Health Services discussed the ways that traditional media such as music and television, in addition to new media such as video games and social media apps, affect how youths see drugs, alcohol and their implications.

“The media in general is so influential on our kids. … Kids are still trying to figure out who they are, what they believe in,” McManus said, adding that it’s something that is difficult to shield them from. “I think as parents, the best thing we can do is try to stay ahead of it the best we can.”

To start, McManus asked the audience what they would think of drugs and alcohol if they had no prior knowledge but just looked to media for guidance. In the breakout session, parents said they would think it was OK to use drugs and alcohol, or that they were safe and glamorous, based on depictions in the media.

Those images come from all angles, McManus said, including songs that talk about drug use, TV shows that do not show the consequences of heavy drinking or drugs and artists who promote drug use but seem “fine.”

Kids will also look for ways to deal with stress levels, which parents agreed were getting higher every day, and may turn to drugs.

“I think we can agree, especially after that keynote, that we are in a society that doesn’t want to feel pain,” McManus said. “It’s just a quick fix for everything, for that fast-paced lifestyle.”

That drug culture also reaches kids through social media apps. There are apps for nearly everything, including apps that delete photos and videos, apps that hide other apps from plain view, apps that conceal messages and apps that are used to review drugs.

All of these apps, McManus said, can be and have been used to buy and sell drugs or find drugs. On top of drug use, however, there are several messaging and rating apps that can be used to bully other students or to anonymously post inappropriate messages, images or videos, she added.

While the idea of there being so many apps that are consistently changing, updating and evolving might be scary, McManus said it is important to just try to stay informed.

“I need y’all to know about the bad so that you can help your kids and know what’s out there, so that you can protect them as best as you can,” McManus said.