Along with a few counselors from our district and our superintendent, I attended a recent early morning forum on protecting the youth of Warren County from drugs and alcohol. With Red Ribbon Week coming right up, this is a hot topic and I will be posting several different pieces that I learned from the brief forum. I plan to also do some follow up work and possibly serve on a committee to learn more to better understand how I can use my role as a school counselor to help our youth avoid drugs and alcohol.
The first piece I want to share is the scary new drugs and alcohol that kids might be using and we don't even know it. The reason why is because the items look just like regular items.
Look at this picture or click on it to see the full view of a variety of energy drinks. Do you know which ones contain alcohol?
Now, click here to find the answer. Hint....5 of the 10 shown had alcohol! Some store workers don't even know this and they accidentally sell the items to minors sometimes? When it asks for age, some clerks have said they thought it was just an error because the drink was an energy drink and they click through that screen and sell it anyway! Scary Stuff!
Now, even scarier is what the trend is with tobacco products. Take a look at the picture below.
Do you think adults can tell the difference between tobacco and a mint and which one a kid is using? Can parents? Can teachers? Can little kids? What happens if a kid, maybe even my child, finds some of the tablets on the right on the ground and thinks it is a mint. My kids love mints! But these mints could mess up a small child's body pretty quickly.
And what about the new tobacco pouches that you put in your mouth or in your lip? Sure, these new products are smokeless, but the marketing and packaging is aiming for young people and trying to get them hooked....
These products are in the stores now and are being marketed directly to our young adults and even kids. What may have started out as ways to get around the public smoking laws has quickly turned into how can we make these products cool so that kids will want to have them, carry them, and use them. And I bet they also thought...how could we make them so others may not notice that a kid is using them. As a parent, a counselor, and an educator, I feel the rapidly changing technology is just as rapid with drugs and we need to stay a step ahead of it at all times if we can. Education is where is starts, so help me educate others about these new drugs and start the discussion with your kids.
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