Funding for our website was provided by Monadnock Voices for Prevention through a Strategic Prevention Framework grant from the Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Services, NH DHHS.
Parents play a major role in their children’s choices about alcohol, tobacco or other drugs. In a survey of parents and teens by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, one-third of teen partygoers have been to parties where teens were drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, or using cocaine, ecstasy or prescription drugs while a parent was present. By age 17, nearly half (46%) of teens have been at such parties where parents were present. There are many heath-related consequences of youth consuming alcohol including negative effects on brain development, increased sexual activity, deviant behavior including stealing and skipping school and a greater risk of becoming alcohol-dependent later in life.
Drug-Free Action Alliance has developed the Parents Who Host, Lose The Most: Don’t be a party to teenage drinking public awareness campaign to provide parents with accurate information about the health risks of underage drinking and the legal consequences of providing alcohol to youth. The campaign message is focused toward prom and graduation parties. In a telephone survey conducted for Drug-Free Action Alliance, 25% of teens indicated they had attended a party in the past two months where alcohol was available or served, while only 15% of parents thought their child had attended a party where alcohol was available or served. Also, a majority of parents and teens surveyed said that it is generally easy for underage youth to get alcohol.
“Scientific research shows the serious and damaging effects of alcohol on the developing brain of youth under the age of 21,” says Patricia Harmon, Executive Director of Drug-Free Action Alliance. “This campaign educates parents about the laws and safety risks involved in underage drinking parties, and encourages a unified message that teen alcohol consumption is unhealthy, unsafe and unacceptable.”
Click here for some suggestions on hosting a safe party!
Pledge to protect your child and others’ children by reviewing this Family Pledge and signing it with your child.
Information for Parents
Brain Science
Drugs, Brains, and Behavior -
The Science of Addiction
This booklet aims to fill that knowledge gap by providing scientific information about the disease of drug addiction, including the many harmful consequences of drug abuse and the basic approaches that have been developed to prevent and treat the disease.
How Science Has Revolutionized the Understanding of Drug Addiction
Throughout much of the last century, scientists studying drug abuse labored in the shadows of powerful myths and misconceptions about the nature of addiction. When science began to study addictive behavior in the 1930s, people addicted to drugs were thought to be morally flawed and lacking in willpower. Those views shaped society's responses to drug abuse, treating it as a moral failing rather than a health problem, which led to an emphasis on punitive rather than preventative and therapeutic actions. Today, thanks to science, our views and our responses to drug abuse have changed dramatically. Groundbreaking discoveries about the brain have revolutionized our understanding of drug addiction, enabling us to respond effectively to the problem.
As a result of scientific research, we know that addiction is a disease that affects both brain and behavior. We have identified many of the biological and environmental factors and are beginning to search for the genetic variations that contribute to the development and progression of the disease. Scientists use this knowledge to develop effective prevention and treatment approaches that reduce the toll drug abuse takes on individuals, families, and communities.
Despite these advances, many people today do not understand why individuals become addicted to drugs or how drugs change the brain to foster compulsive drug abuse. This booklet aims to fill that knowledge gap by providing scientific information about the disease of drug addiction, including the many harmful consequences of drug abuse and the basic approaches that have been developed to prevent and treat the disease. At the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), we believe that increased understanding of the basics of addiction will empower people to make informed choices in their own lives, adopt science-based policies and programs that reduce drug abuse and addiction in their communities, and support scientific research that improves the Nation's well-being.
Nora D. Volkow, M.D.
Director
National Institute on Drug Abuse
What’s fact? 
What’s fiction?
What’s fiction?For whatever reason, there’s a belief among teens and parents today that smoking marijuana is a relatively harmless alternative to using other drugs.
But just how ‘harmless’ is marijuana? Read on to learn the facts and the fiction...
Fact or Fiction?
Marijuana isn’t all that harmful.
Fiction. Marijuana is not a harmless little plant. The drug is more potent than ever and can lead to significant health, social, learning, and behavioral problems at a crucial time in kids’ lives. Marijuana contains the same cancer-causing chemicals as tobacco does. It impairs the ability of regular users to concentrate and retain information. And it leads to some changes in the brain similar to those caused by cocaine and heroin.
Fact or Fiction?
Marijuana is organic, natural, pure and clean.
Many things can be added to marijuana leaves without users’ knowledge. Chemicals, such as pesticides, or other drugs, such as PCP or LSD can be sprayed on the leaves. Or joints can be laced with crack or cocaine. Fact.
Fact or Fiction?
Smoking pot only makes people feel mellow.
Fiction. Marijuana can cause paranoia, panic attacks, anxiety, and depression. For those who are already anxious or depressed, using marijuana may make things worse. The drug can also double a person’s normal heart rate and raise blood pressure – two physiological signs of stress. Heavy marijuana use has even been linked with increased aggression, rebelliousness, and violent behavior. One study showed that among youth, the incidence of physical aggression, destroying property, and stealing increased in proportion to the number of days marijuana was smoked in the past year.
Fact or Fiction?
Marijuana, unlike some other illegal drugs, is not addictive.
Fiction. Research shows that marijuana is addictive. In fact, more teens enter treatment with a primary diagnosis of marijuana dependency thatn for all other illicit drugs combined. Sixty percent of teens currently in drug treatment have a primary marijuana diagnosis. A recent study also found that when abstaining from marijuana for just three days, regular users experienced withdrawal symptoms, including drug cravings, decreased appetite, sleep difficulty and weight loss, and increased aggression, anger, irritability, and restlessness.
Fact or Fiction?
Kids are more likely than adults to become dependent on marijuana.
Research shows that marijuana use is three times more likely to lead to dependence among adolescents than among adults. And the earlier adolescents start using it, the more likely they are to develop problems later in life. Fact.
Fact or Fiction?
Smoking a joint doesn’t have any more risk than smoking a cigarette.
Smoking one marijuana joint is equal to smoking five cigarettes. The amount of tar inhaled by marijuana smokers and the level of carbon monoxide they absorb are also three to five times more than those of tobacco smokers. And like tobacco, marijuana contains hundreds of carcinogens that lead to cancer. Fact.
Fact or Fiction?
Marijuana is less popular among kids today because of club drugs.
Fiction. Far more youth use marijuana than ecstasy or any other drug. Among kids who use drugs, approximately 60% use marijuana only.
Fact or Fiction?
Marijuana doesn’t have any long-term effects.
Fiction. Marijuana use can have many long-term effects. In addition to the health risks, using marijuana can lead to failure in school, trouble with the law or additional risky behaviors that could have lifelong consequences. Young marijuana users in their later teen years are more likely to have multiple sexual partners and problems with cigarettes and alcohol and other illegal drugs.
Fact or Fiction?
People who are stoned have better coordination than people who are drunk.
When a person uses marijuana, there is a demonstrable level of loss of motor coordination, distorted perception, increased heart rate, trouble with thinking and problem-solving, and these effects are even greater when other drugs are mixed with marijuana. Fact.
Fact or Fiction?
Marijuana doesn’t stay in the body for more than a few days.
Even after the user stops feeling the effects of marijuana, the drug can linger in the body for weeks. This means it can be detected by a standard drug test long after its initial use. Fact.
But it's only a little pot ....
The Hinsdale Community Coalition is a group of adults and youth working together to create and maintain a healthy community for all.
19 Main Street at the Millstream Communtiy Center
603-336-6135 e-mail hpc.coordinator@gmail.com
Quarterly Message from HCC
All of us struggle with self-esteem issues.
Some days we may feel really good about
ourselves and then some days we may feel lousy about ourselves. Our level of self-esteem can be affected by even small things such as a “bad hair day”. All of us have what is commonly referred to as an "inner critic" - that little voice inside of us that tells us that we are not good enough, that we are stupid, that we are ugly, that we could never accomplish anything, that we aren't lovable, that we are not liked, and the list goes on and on. But there are few simple steps we can follow each day to help keep our self esteem up.
- Through involvement in community organizations, individuals can develop a positive sense of themselves and create meaningful community change.
- Learn something new. Create a new hobby. Take on a new physical challenge or activity.
- Keep good company. Positive feeds positive and negative breeds negative. If you choose to be around positive people you in turn will become more positive.
- Enrich your life, make new friends, when you're happy and comfortable you develop closer friendships.
- One step at a time. Even a small success can bring a big feeling of competence.
