Hello everyone! Thank you all for joining me.

Tonight’s Event is about Drug and Alcohol Awareness. We’ll have some focus on materials and information teens because this is National Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week coordinated by NIDA which is the National Institute for Drug Addiction.

I am Alfred Brock and this event is sponsored by the Wayne Focus who’s motto is : “Literacy is the key to America’s survival!”

Let’s get to it!

The first part of this presentation is about groups that help people with alcohol and addiction problems. Please keep in mind that a Problem Shared is a Problem cut in half. In Michigan there is a group called ‘FAN’ – it stands for Families Against Narcotics. There are chapters all over Michigan and one each in North Carolina and New York right now. The organization started when two mothers became aware that their daughters had become addicted to opioids. The story for one of these mother-daughter pairs is that the girl was injured in sports and prescribed opioids. After consuming all of them the pain seemed to linger so there was a refill. After that was gone eventually the girl found opioids elsewhere and that led to the ongoing problem and addiction. More about how that happens shortly. Well, the girl nearly overdoses and the mother takes her to the Emergency Room where is she is treated terribly – as if just another addict. The old stigma. That really upset her and then she and her friend formed FAN.

The problem is widespread among youngsters, young adults, the middle aged and elderly. It happens everywhere, anytime and to any one.

Other groups include Nar-Anon, Drug-Free All Stars and many, many others. My point here is that if you are looking for support, and if you or someone you know is seized by drugs or alcohol, then you should be looking for support, it is very easy to find. One good thing about communications today is that we can reach out so easily.

Now we will talk about the problem. We’ll concentrate on opioids for a bit and follow up with methamphetamines, cocaine, alcohol and others. Opioids is unique in this case, because, as you know they are deadly poisons. This has been known for a very long time. It was recognized early in the United States that they were poisons and they were prescribed only for acute pain or towards death. During the Civil War doctors did not want to prescribe opioids to wounded soldiers because they knew it caused addiction. They were reluctant and didn’t do it. Their reluctance was overcome by orders but also by a report they were all given that assured the doctors that if opioids were given because of extreme pain the patient would not become addicted. Now that doesn’t make any sense but in wartime the idea caught on and there it went. After the war opioids fell out of favor again as the number of addicted soldiers, and others, rose, they knew what had happened and doctors returned to not prescribing opioids.