Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Let’s Talk WITH Kids, Not TO Kids About Drugs and Addiction.

Let’s Talk WITH Kids, Not TO Kids About Drugs and Addiction.

In the last several days I’ve read some important articles and editorials about our drug pandemic and addiction. How many of them have reached adolescents? How many have been clipped, copied, or otherwise shared by teachers with their students? If not, why not? If we think about that question, we’ll have to delve into the fear that keeps us from addressing substance use and other forms of addiction head-on. It’s too easy to just say addiction feeds on silence. If we don’t share information and ideas with young people, we only strengthen the fabric of the cloak of silence. If they are not already, in a few short years adolescents will be voting and helping to make policy on these issues.

There are plenty of other pieces in the news that deserve to be shared. If we hesitate to share at all, we must ask ourselves what we’re frightened of. Our fear will only come back to haunt us. Silence = Death rings as true today as it always has.

Here’s a starter kit:

What Comes Next for the War on Drugs? The Beginning of the End.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/opinion/drug-crisis-addiction.html