Drug Prevention Education Strategies and Marijuana

Awareness

12th Annual Adult Prevention Educator Conference

Ralph Cantor

Berkeley, CA May 6, 2009

Topics covered today

• Goals of drug education/prevention

• Strategies for working with youth

• The case for delaying use

• The Reward Center

• Some understanding of marijuana

• Raising awareness about alcohol

• Promoting Resiliency

• Messages for parents

Goals of drug education

• Think more deeply about the issues• Make a more informed decision• Have a positive influence on their

behavior• Know that adults care and will respond• Identify kids needing help• Delay initial usage or retard usage

5

How people learn

and Knowledge

Prior Experience

Thought

Emotions

Heart

Stages of ChangeAge Appropriateness

• Pre Contemplative Stage (Not even thinking about it)

• Contemplative Stage• Planning Stage• 7th and 8th Delay Usage• 9th Transition• 10th thru 12th Nonjudgmental

Process

• Establish credibility (Authenticity & Knowledge )

• Create a resilient learning environment (expectations, caring, and participation)

• Present a non-judgmental approach • Stimulate discussion and serious

thought, weaving in information w/balanced answers

Reasons for delaying message

• Development of the prefrontal cortex

• Pruning and myelination

• Neuroadaptivity: dull pleasure center

• Short circuiting developmental tasks

• Greater need for dopamine

• Pharmacological solutions resulting pharmacological insults

• The research

Adolescent Brain Adult Brain

• “USE IT OR LOSE IT”– Reading, sports, music, video games, x-box, hanging out—whatever a child/teen is doing—these are the neural synapses that will be retained

• How children/teens spend their time is CRUCIAL to brain development since their activities guide the structure of the brain

Pruning

Neuroadaptivity, Hypofrontality, Memory Loss

• Neuroadaptivity – Dulling of the pleasure center of the brain

• Hypofrontality – Interference with the decision making area of brain

• Memory loss – Damage to the hippocampus

Developmental tasks

• Boredom

• Good times

• Stress

• Social Skills

• Academic Skills

Percentage of U.S. Adults Aged 18 and Older Dependent on Alcohol, By Age of Drinking Onset

• The reward system is responsible for seeking natural rewards that have survival value (food, water, sex, and nurturing)

• Dopamine is the system’s primary neurotransmitter

Reward System

Sketch the synaptic space

Drugs Hijack the Brain’s Reward Circuitry

• Immediate effect of drug use is an increase in dopamine

• Continued use of drugs reduces the brain’s dopamine production

• Because dopamine is part of the reward system, the brain is ‘fooled’ into ‘thinking’ that the drug has survival value for the organism

• The reward system responds with “drug seeking behaviors”

• Craving occurs and, eventually, dependence.

Dopamine vs. Serotonin

• Dopamine produces a feeling of pleasure

• Serotonin produces a feeling of well being

• Difference between pleasure and happiness

• Developing skills, interest, relationships, meaning (“getting a life”)

• Wizard of Oz

• Nucleus Accumbens• Hippocampus• Cerebellum• Amygdala• Hypothalmus

MarijuanaCannabinoid Sites

Hippocampus

• Gateway between short term and long term memory

• Draws information from long term memory

• Discriminates relevant new information

• Trashes unimportant information

• Stores new information in long term memory

• Intrudes on the ecology of the brain at a crucial developmental time having an influence on present performance and future functioning

• Hippocampus/Learning

• Ultimately producing opposite results

• Gateway to cigarettes

• Pruning and Neuroadaptation

Concerns with Marijuana

• THC and resin

• Damage to cilia

• Viewing the bronchi

• Marijuana/tobacco connection

• Blunts

• The power of nicotine and endorphins

• Compromised immune system

The Lungs

1) Reduced sensitivity to intoxication

2) Increased sensitivity to social disinhibitions

3) Greater adverse effects to cognitive functioning

4) It seems to be endorsed as a norm

Adolescents more susceptible to alcohol than adults

• Ever see a group of drunk teenagers• Binge drinking• Demeaning behavior• Accidents• Sexual Behavior• Brain damage• Addiction• Driving and deaths• Teenage Proofing your house

Issues with alcohol: Why do kids have to drink?

How well does the drug work

Positive and Negative Reinforcement

If, in addition to producing pleasure (positive reinforcement), a drug is more addicting, if it relieves negative states: boredom, anxiety, depression or stress (negative reinforcement).

Risk of addiction

PleasurePleasure

“I feel good”“I feel good”

BoredBored

AnhedoniaAnhedonia

InterestedInterested

“I feel negative”“I feel negative”

NORMAL RANGENORMAL RANGE

DysphoriaDysphoria EuphoriaEuphoria

Pleasure Scale

Promoting Resiliency,Connection and Engagement• Supportive family (tuned in, time

together, supervision, fair rules/boundaries)

• Non using peers and role models• Developing interests and academic skills• Youth are connected (school, activities)• Social Skills• Dealing with boredom, stress, partying• Exercise, movement, sweat

• Talk to your child I care, I see, I feel, Listen

• Clear expectations and consequences

• Communication & Monitoring

• Integrity & Self Assessment – Modeling

• Teen-proof your home

• Promote Connection & Interests

Parents

• Self Care •This is work of the heart

• Clarity of Intention

The power of your presence

• Ignorance that the substance is a drug and what it does to the body

• Loss of desired effect with increasing frequency

• Difficulty separating from the drug

• Impairment of health or social function

Personal Self Assessment

Andrew Weil – Unhealthy relationship

References

S. Alex Stalcup, M.D.New Leaf Treatment Center

251 Lafayette Circle, Suite 150

Lafayette, CA 94549

Timmen Cermak, M.D.Mill Valley, CA

Marijuana: What’s a Parent to Believe

Hazelden Press 2005

Contact Information

Ralph CantorAlameda County Office of Education

(510) 653-9410

rjcantor@aol.com