By Janet McGann, Special to The Times
Last Monday, Unionville High School had a Narcotics Overdose Prevention and Education assembly regarding the deaths caused by overdosing on drugs — part of an ongoing program of such assemblies held around the county.
Unfortunately, while the intentions of the assembly were good, the information and tactics used were ineffective on the student body.
Before starting, my sentiments go out to the parents and families of those that have died from overdosing. I appreciate the work that goes into these assemblies,’ but I feel as if these parents are trying to help but, not doing so effectively. I would like N.O.P.E to use tactics and information that reach their target audience. They focused on outdated information and fear tactics that only worked on the small part of the student body that doesn’t use drugs.
This assembly did not focus on Juuling, the heroin epidemic, binge drinking/drugs at parties, legal implications (DUI,DWI), or the addiction caused by doctors over-prescribing opiates for athletic injuries. These affect a large portion of the student body and it is information that the students need to know. It did not focus on statistics or the current increase in drug overdoses in Pennsylvania.
“In 2016, 4,642 drug-related overdose deaths were reported by Pennsylvania coroners and medical examiners, an increase of 37 percent from 2015. In 2016 approximately 13 people died of a drug-related overdose each day”(PittPharmacy, 2016)
Most high schoolers know that weed isn’t addictive and that the “gateway” method is fully incorrect. They don’t know how weed affects the brain — especially brains under age 25 — or how damaging nicotine addiction is. They don’t know how prescribed medicine can lead to an addiction. High schoolers know that heroin and weed don’t belong in the same category: in the case of the former, one dose can kill.
“An alternative to the gateway-drug hypothesis is that people who are more vulnerable to drug-taking are simply more likely to start with readily available substances such as marijuana, tobacco, or alcohol, and their subsequent social interactions with others who use drugs increases their chances of trying other drugs.” (Drugabuse.gov)
To start, students walked into the auditorium to see portraits of those who have overdosed on drugs. They paid respects to the dead but they gave them each the same story — dehumanizing them, unfortunately — making them seem like perfect model students, each being charismatic and kind and having their parents either be too passive or not know about their life-ending addiction.
Then, to end each story they fault their friends for not being better people for not calling the police sooner, followed by calling the student body out and saying that we could be “heroes” if we called out our friend’s drug addiction.
At the end, and to scare, it seems, they had a police officer speak and pull out an urn — granted, better than last year’s body bag — and talk about how that’s all families have left of their dead children.
Obviously, this was an incredibly depressing assembly. It used fear mongering to try to scare students into thinking all drugs are equally bad and perfect and smart kids will still die.
I think N.O.P.E underestimates the knowledge that the modern high school kids have about drugs. There was storytelling and the whole assembly felt like a drug themed SPCA commercial but all the student body took away from it is that drugs=death and that the EMS probably won’t be able to revive your overdosed dead body.
For an assembly that focused on overdosing, they did not go over the signs of overdose or drug use very well, in essence, they just said “call the police and hope for the best.”
In the end, I think that N.O.P.E is a great program and the people behind it try their best to help students around the nation — but their methods are outdated and their tactics are poorly executed.
Janet McGann is a resident of Pocopson and a junior at Unionville High School. She is the daughter of Times’ editor Mike McGann and plans to study music education in college.
Citations:
Philadelphia division , DEA, and University Of Pittsburg. “Analysis of Overdose Deaths in Pennsylvania, 2016.” OverdosefreePa, PittPharmacy, July 2017, www.overdosefreepa.pitt.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DEA-Analysis-of-Overdose-Deaths-in-Pennsylvania-2016.pd_-1.pdf.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Is Marijuana a Gateway Drug?” NIDA, Feb. 2018, www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/marijuana-gateway-drug.
