I am tired of drug&alcohol councilors trying to scare me at school

[Mass_Liberal]

I have a mandatory class at my high school, drugs&alcohol. It is really beginning to annoy me. First, they tell me tons of gruesome stories about people from dying by alchohol poisoning. They even told me that someone died from ODing on weed. They of course said you only need to smoke a mere 16 ounces of weed.


Then they start to give me flat out false information, saying that weed kills brain cells, and that people never grow new brain cells, they can only grow receptors.


Of course, I regurgitate this to my family to see if it's true, and my dad, who has done studies for the government on the effects of marijuana, tells me that most of the stuff they say is total bullshit.


In any case, I'm annoyed. Thanks for letting me rant.

[Mass_Liberal]

1. grrrrrrrrrr

n/t

[LastKnight]

2. welcome to the public school system...

if you havent noticed most of what the government funded school tells you is bullshit

my history textbook was made by a company that accepted corporate donations for omitting certian information, what exact information im not sure, but this is just another example of the shit that is becoming more and more common out there in the public school system. thats one of the main reasons i dont use that textbook, its just history anyway, can find it from any number of sources if i need a reference.

by the way, i dont mean this as an attack on public school teachers out there, its not your fault, my mom is a public school teacher and they do nothing but increase testing and cut funding, all teachers are doing (and have time to do) these days are teaching to the tests and not what people need to know. but lets not get me started on THAT.

-LK

[Mass_Liberal]

3. I don't begrudge them trying to

say "taking 15 shots of tequila will leave you fucked up and dead". But I think they can make the point about not overdoing it on alchohol and drugs without lying to me.

[LastKnight]

5. i agree with you.

i think its good thier trying to prevent drug use, they are bad substances afterall, but lying isnt a solution to anything.

-LK

[teach1st]

4. It angers me, too..

What the adults don't understand is that kids remember every lie adults fling to them and so they eventually figure that even the accurate information about drugs is bogus too. DARE says the same thing about marijuana - I couldn't find any evidence that marijuana destroys brain cells and the deaths from marijuana OD were few and caused by massive consumption, as you say.

I would be careful with alchohol, though. Alchohol doesn't go very well with brains and livers.

[rockymountaindem]

6. Well,

they are correct that you can't grow new brain cells. That much is true. As for the rest, I don't know. I personally don't think I'll ever do pot because I find smoking anything to be gross. Other than that, I don't have any problem with other people doing it as long as they don't drive while they're high.

[Mass_Liberal]

7. really?

I thought that the brain is constantly growing new cells. Meh. I am grossly ignorant on matters of biology.

[rockymountaindem]

13. No, brain cells are like nerve cells.

They do not regenerate. That is why nerve injuries and nerve diseases such as Parkinsons cannot really be fixed or cured. They are the only cells in the body that do not regenerate and are not replaced. For example, your blood cells only function for about 120 days, but that's ok because your marrow is always churning out replacements. Skin is another good example. As you may know, the skin you see on top of your body is actually all dead cells. They flake off at an alarming rate. Fortunately for us, there is a "germination layer" beneath the top layer (the epidermis, is the top, the dermis is the bottom) that always makes new cells. They then die and sort of float to the top, where they become part of the skin.

Actually, at the age of 20, your brain begins to lose cells naturally. That is why everyone's mental capacity declines steadily as we age. Alzheimers and other such disease only accelerate the process, or block remaining brain cells from communicating properly (as some has hypothesized about Alzheimers).

[Kali]

17. Actually....

Have a little recent, personally encountered info here. 14 year old son recently sustained a skull fracture which included a siezure. Had the whole experience of surgery and a titanium plate installed, nuerologist assigned. Thankfully he seems to be fine, no further sympoms of siezures or other impairment except for normal teenagehood - which leads to the next part of the story. He even more recently got busted at school high on pot (this is a class three felony by the way, "no drug zones" and such - I wondered what that meant because I always thought schools where supposed to be drug free etc, no it just means more punishment)...any way talking with his nuerologist, a fairly hip guy who wasn't out to scare anybody mentioned that there has been some new research showing that in late teens early 20 there is a period of further growth and new nueral connections happening that was previously not observed. His recommendation to my son was hold off till he was 22 or so then the effects of marijuana would be very minimal. I appreciated this straightforward factual and science based information. This contrasted with the arresting officer the school has on campus full time (small town!) who was out to asure me that marijuana use is a gateway drug to methamphetamine...no wonder kids don't listen to adults. I know I never believed those movies when I was in gradeschool - or at least I've never come across any recreational substances that could cause any of those special effects!

[rockymountaindem]

18. That's news to me.

Although if it's true that is quite interesting. Everything I've ever read said that brain cells cannot be reproduced. I'm no doctor, but I think that perhaps your son's experience can be attributed to his young age. It is known that until the age of 8 people can recover from a major brain injury. This is not done by replacing the cells, but by re-wiring the brain to compensate for the loss. I've heard a couple of stories about people who are 12/13 having half of their entire brain removed to stop life-threatening siezures. While they don't make a full recovery, they can live normal lives after therapy. Losing half of your brain, obviously, is quite serious. I've never heard any reports of this being done on older people.

Again, I'm not an expert but I did have 2 years of college-level biology and I've never heard anything that said brain and nerve cells can be regenerated.

[Mass_Liberal]

8. ya, I just checked the web

it says that it is well known that the brain creates new brain cells all throughout life. Admittedly, I should ask a better authority, the internet is %50 bullshit.

[kodi]

9. have dad write a note to school asking you to be exempt from DARE idiots

.

[Nikia]

10. They do lie about marijuana

And the man may or may not have O'd on marijuana, but for the most part, people cannot consume enough marijuana to die. It is not something that would accidently happen even if you were continuously smoking over a period of time. I don't believe that it kills brain cells. There are specific receptors for it, just like there are for nicotine and some other chemicals. For the most part, it is not unhealthy to smoke marijuana in moderation.
Alcohol is a more dangerous drug though. It is both psychologically and physically addictive. It is a poision to the body and there will be damage if to various organs if you consume large amounts in one sitting or more than moderate amounts regularly. People, especially those relatively inexperienced, do accidently die from alcohol poisioning. I would recommend that inexperienced drinkers be careful about consuming too much alcohol. Drink slowly until you know how it will affect you as I found out after drinking 10 shots of hard liquor in about an hour, my second time intoxicated.
I think that they should be more careful to give out accurate information on drugs and alcohol. Overdosing on alcohol and more dangerous drugs, like cocaine can be damaging and life threatening. Education should focus on avoiding this and what to do if you have a friend in that situation.

[Another Bill C.]

11. Alcohol will kill you.

From first-hand experience I can tell you that Power drinking can kill you within an hour and getting sloshed daily will take 10 to 15 years.

[H2O Man]

12. Because counselors have inaccurate information...

... does not mean that there are not serious consequences from substance use/abuse. I am not lecturing, or telling you to let anyone else do your thinking for you. But, some drugs are just plain dangerous. An example would be that PCP is going to have bad effects far more often than pot. Matter of fact, alcohol is a greater risk to a person's health than pot.
Other factors should be considered. Family history is a thing to examine. If your grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles tend to have addictions, than you have an increased risk for addiction. Life is just not fair in these areas.
Also, "addiction" is the disease; thus, a person who abuses one drug generally will have a tendency to abuse other drugs. Go to an AA meeting, and watch the amount of coffee and tobacco consumed.
Examine your reasons for wanting to "party." Be honest with yourself: is it interfering with school? With family life? A job? If it interfers with your life, it means something.
Also, there are certain mental illnesses that are not helped by drug consumption. Depressed people don't do well drinking a lot. Those with psychotic disorders can have serious problems with even a mild substance like pot, not to mention LSD, etc. A teen-ager with a potential or pre-disposition for a psychotic disorder can set the darned thing in motion with these drugs. Again, life ain't always fair.
I think society is uneasy with teens/young adults and drugs in part because we old folks remember how we behaved. Be smart. Have a designated driver. Don't get in a car with a drunk friend behind the wheel. Party in "safe" spots. Keep an open mind. Life can be a lot of fun sober, too.
I used to do MICA groups (mentally ill chemical abuser) and jail groups through the mental health clinic I worked for, including being a "shared staff" with alcohol & drug abuse services. Some of their staff were great. A lot weren't. But in the end, you have to decide how to live your life. If you look close, though, you will see that there are more fights in bars than in McDonalds, and by the time you are 40, many of your old class-mates who are dead, will have lost their lives in drug-related incidents/accidents. Behave!

[Mass_Liberal]

14. I know

like I said, I don't object to them trying to teach me the ills of drug and alcohol abuse. I do get angry when they give me false info.

[BBradley]

15. Lies, Lies, and more Lies

Yeah, it's true, most of the crap they tell you about Marijuana is either total bullshit, can't be reproduced, has been declared useless by the scientists who conducted the tests, or in the case of the Marijuana "OD", misinformation.

Yeah, there have been people who have died from smoking marijuana. It wasn't the pot that killed them though, it was the fact that it was laced. However, many anti-drug coroners looking to make a name for themselves will say the death was caused be marijuana, because they wouldn't have died if they hadn't smoked the pot.

They're using the same tactics for MDMA now. Massive water consumption on ecstasy can cause a "water OD." Your brain will swell, and there's a good chance you will die. So of course they say that because the water wouldn't have been consumed without the misinformation about the need for water consumption on ecstasy the primary cause of death is MDMA.

It's just plain dishonest.

Health class is disgusting here in Virginia as well, whenever I try to voice a protest, the teacher always said, "I'm just going on the information they give me."

Sometimes I'm glad they kicked me out.

[yardwork]

16. It's a shame to tell lies when the truth is bad enough.

Alcohol kills people every day. My father died from alcoholism. I'm watching friends kill themselves with it now.

Alcohol is a terrible drug. There is no need to scare people about all the illegal drugs - they are a drop in the bucket compared to the two legal ones, alcohol and tobacco.

[nuxvomica]

19. I hear ya. They lied when I was in high school, too

In health class, we were told that marijuana addiction is the most serious cuz people have literally puked their guts out detoxing from marijuana. So I figured that was true until three college-age folks from the local drug crisis hotline came to talk to the class and set us straight on things. It seems that the people actually dealing with drug-related problems in real life knew that BS'ing gets you nowhere.

[Chuletas]

20. some advice from a slightly older guy

I had the worse health teacher in the world, smoke pot look into the sun go blind while you're jumping off a building, etc. etc.

If anything enhances your life it's ok, if it starts to control your life then there's a problem. Can't tell you how many times I see my old friends looking 15 years older than the actually are, broke and doing the same old crap they were doing in high school. Don't peak in high school that the key.

Don't touch anything in a powder or with a damn needle, you'll find yourself either dead, in prison, broke, strung out or have no friends.

that's the double truth, ruth!

[bigwillq]

21. What drugs have you tried?

If you don't mind me asking.

[corporatewhore]

22. if you take one hit you will become pregnant with a terrorist fetus

saw it on a commercial

[DrWeird]

23. Everybody should try pot once.

And many more times if you like it.

[Dookus]

24. and you should be annoyed

I started public school in 1966, and it was even worse then, I can assure you.

However, they SHOULD instill fear in young people about "power drinking" and hard-drug use. Far too many kids are killed due to these, and young folk DO need to know that you can die from doing a crazy amount of tequila shots, and they need to know that cocaine WILL kill a percentage of otherwise healthy people, and that opiates used more than VERY occasionally can fuck you up badly.

I've done all those drugs, often to an extreme degree. I was lucky, and never got in any serious trouble from it. But now, at the advanced age of 42, I always caution young folk I meet that they should smoke all the pot they want, drink moderately, and avoid cocaine and heroin entirely. Of them all, I'd say cocaine is the worst - I've seen more lives destroyed by that drug than any other, excepting alcohol.

On edit: I forgot the main point I wanted to make. Must be the drugs :)

The reason they do this is because of a stupid, puritanical, ignorant belief that you can scare kids away from doing what they want to do. It's like urging teens to maintain virginity until marriage - it's a nice idea in the abstract, but it doesn't work well at all in reality. Same with drug use. They won't teach kids that oral sex is a reasonable alternative to intercourse, or that if you have intercourse, use a condom. Similarly, they won't teach teens that smoking a joint on a saturday night is OK. It's all based on the misguided notion that teens won't partake of pleasurable activities if you give them the worst-case scenario. It's ludicrous.

[Ediacara]

25. Pot doesn't kill brain cells

As far as I know from recent studies, it slows transmission between cells in the brain, but doesn't actually kill the cells. As for ODing and death.... WHO SMOKES A POUND OF WEED IN ONE SITTING!? I could similarly claim that salt causes death because if I fed you a pound of salt, you'd surely die from it!