Mr. Stutman was a special agent in the Drug Enforcement Administration for more than 25 years and has made it a life commitment to fighting the drug war in the United States. He now travels to high schools, presents his knowledge to the student body, meets with them anonymously to find out what they are using or what they know about the drug use in their school, and then presents the students' perceptions to parents. This was the most amazing effective presentation of facts I have ever been to. I wanted to share a summary of the presentation with all of you and others if I can.
Some statistics
• United States represents 4 percent of the world population; however, we consume 60 percent of the world's illegal drugs.
• Columbia University is advanced in the best drug studies. One result of a study is that 71 percent of high school students respond that the no. 1 cause of stress in their life is drug use. Only 22 percent of parents believe that drugs are a problem.
• Twenty-three percent of college students will or do have an alcohol/substance abuse problem. College students are three times more at risk of becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol than those not in college at that age.
• On the Virginia Tech campus, 32 children were killed by a gun mass shooting. The country was outraged by these deaths. Why are we not outraged by these facts:
365 days a year...
• 2,500 students are hospitalized for either alcohol poisoning or drug overdose
• 300 female college students are raped
• 5 children die everyday from abuse of alcohol or drugs
The total number of drug addicts doubled in the past 15 years. We went from 8.5 million drug addicts to 19 million ages 12 and older. The overall use may be down, but the level of addiction is up. The overall addiction rate is 12 percent for society, but 25 percent for teens.
Important changes to
overall drug use
• Age of first use is younger!
• What we know for sure about age of first use is that the younger children are when they start using, the higher risk they have of having a drug or alcohol dependency problem.
• What grade are children at risk of tasting or trying alcohol for the first time? Fourth grade!
Drugs have changed! In an interview with 160 children in an auditorium in Marcellus, these drugs were discussed as relevant drugs being used today by children.
1. Ritalin/adderall
2. Salvia
3. OxyContin
4. Roxy (short name for roxiecodone)
5. Marijuana
Salvia is getting to be used more widely. It's from the plant family sage, legal in 36 states and legal federally. First cousin to purple sage, very short-acting, like a tea, and is a hallucinating drug acting for about 12 minutes. You can only see what's directly in front of you. It's stronger than marijuana.
Scary response from the audience: Marijuana is the drug to use everyday.
Prescription drugs are referred to as “pharmy” drugs coming from parents' medicine cabinets. Not a drug the children think up or try, they get them from the home! One way of use for fast-acting hallucinating is to crush up the drug and put it in a Kleenex and ingest the whole Kleenex.
The drug which scares Stutman the most is OxyContin. It's a killer drug, a synthetic narcotic used as a long-term painkiller for adults. However, most prescriptions are filled with more pills than needed because of the co-pay expense and the amount would be the same for five, 20, or 80 pills. Students take this drug because it gives the feeling of warmth, protection, security, safety and well being. Stutman compares it to “being held in a mother's arms.” It is highly addictive and wreaks havoc on a life. The reason the drug is so elusive is because you appear straight and many users cannot be picked out. It also does not interfere with the ability to interact, as Rush Limbaugh hid his use from the public everyday. The perniciousness of the drug kills children every day. The high risk of death comes from the vomiting or aspirating when one is passed out due to the nature to fall deeply asleep. Children pass out on their backs and vomit, then aspirate and die. Heath Ledger died from OxyContin being used to treat depression.
• Is there a color of skin to a drug addict? Yes, 78 percent are white.
• Are they city children? No, twice as high in rural areas.
• What about suburbs? Fifteen percent higher in the suburbs.
• Public or private schools? Private schools are 15 percent higher, except faith-based private schools are lower by 15 percent.
• What about intelligent children? Some of the smartest children are drug users
Parents response to drug and alcohol use is that it's happening, but “not my child!”
Many children in the audience said that parents overlook alcohol use as rite of passage for children. Some parents serve to minors still! Children said, parents are OK with them drinking!
Children said, “We do not drink without the purpose of getting blitzed!”
The two most addictive substances are cocaine and alcohol.
Some students claimed to use marijuana three times a week since middle school, but debated that they could stop any time. They were not addicted!
Two biggest drugs in this school are marijuana and adderall.
Adderall was always referred to as the drug to stay awake. Used to treat ADHD, it is widely available in medicine cabinets. Children crush it and snort it or ingest it.
The most accurate trait to lead to addiction or substance abuse is age of first use. The younger age of first use, the higher rate of addiction.
If your child makes it to 19 or 20 and doesn't have a problem, chances are they won't.
What drug is the predictor drug? What drug is the key drug being used that will usually predict a drug problem later on? Tobacco! This number predicts drug use. This number can be one to seven, with the highest number predicting less drug abuse.
Also important is the number of nights the family eats together. The average time families interact with their students is only nine minutes a day. If family dinners were more prevalent, it would increase the time you have everyday to share with your child, talk things over and know what they are doing and who they are with.
Suggestions by the presidential family: Play roses and thorns at the table ... What was the worst thing about your day? What was the best thing about your day?
Our country has a substance abuse epidemic! Who do most families go to when their child has a problem? Clergymen. However, clergy have no formal training of drugs. So, use your clergymen and train them and have clergy reach their captive audiences to discuss drug abuse!
What age should we begin to discuss these issues with children? Guess what? Fourth grade is too late! Start at 6 or 7 years of age by starting to discuss “good medicine” or “bad medicine” and that no one should ever give you medicine except the parent!
Can your community look itself in the mirror and say “we tried everything” to prevent this death? If the community has not all come together to do everything they can to prevent drug or alcohol abuse, then there will always be “collective guilt” when a tragedy happens.
Many suggestions from Bob Stutman
1. Learn, learn, learn. Start with his Web site, which links to many informational sites about drugs and their effects: www.thestutmangroup.com.
2. Read “High Society” by Joe Califano, the finest book on substance abuse.
3. See a film called “Traffic,” a most accurate depiction of drug abuse.
4. Get to parents and realize it takes all of us.
5. Start mandatory education for parents, like a three-hour drug and alcohol course for parents, and make it mandatory!
6. Give children a reason to not use drugs; educate them! There is 50 percent lower usage rate for children who are educated.
7. Children are using your pills. Lock them up!
8. Need a peer-to-peer program where children use each other to understand how to deal with drugs and peer pressure! It takes three days for a lab report to detect what's in a drug. Our children test the drugs by sticking it into them and seeing what happens!
How do you know what you are taking?
Awesome presentation and I wish the Skaneateles children and parents could have heard it!
Marianne Angelillo is a
PACT board member
• United States represents 4 percent of the world population; however, we consume 60 percent of the world's illegal drugs.
• Columbia University is advanced in the best drug studies. One result of a study is that 71 percent of high school students respond that the no. 1 cause of stress in their life is drug use. Only 22 percent of parents believe that drugs are a problem.
• Twenty-three percent of college students will or do have an alcohol/substance abuse problem. College students are three times more at risk of becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol than those not in college at that age.
• On the Virginia Tech campus, 32 children were killed by a gun mass shooting. The country was outraged by these deaths. Why are we not outraged by these facts:
365 days a year...
• 2,500 students are hospitalized for either alcohol poisoning or drug overdose
• 300 female college students are raped
• 5 children die everyday from abuse of alcohol or drugs
The total number of drug addicts doubled in the past 15 years. We went from 8.5 million drug addicts to 19 million ages 12 and older. The overall use may be down, but the level of addiction is up. The overall addiction rate is 12 percent for society, but 25 percent for teens.
Important changes to
overall drug use
• Age of first use is younger!
• What we know for sure about age of first use is that the younger children are when they start using, the higher risk they have of having a drug or alcohol dependency problem.
• What grade are children at risk of tasting or trying alcohol for the first time? Fourth grade!
Drugs have changed! In an interview with 160 children in an auditorium in Marcellus, these drugs were discussed as relevant drugs being used today by children.
1. Ritalin/adderall
2. Salvia
3. OxyContin
4. Roxy (short name for roxiecodone)
5. Marijuana
Salvia is getting to be used more widely. It's from the plant family sage, legal in 36 states and legal federally. First cousin to purple sage, very short-acting, like a tea, and is a hallucinating drug acting for about 12 minutes. You can only see what's directly in front of you. It's stronger than marijuana.
Scary response from the audience: Marijuana is the drug to use everyday.
Prescription drugs are referred to as “pharmy” drugs coming from parents' medicine cabinets. Not a drug the children think up or try, they get them from the home! One way of use for fast-acting hallucinating is to crush up the drug and put it in a Kleenex and ingest the whole Kleenex.
The drug which scares Stutman the most is OxyContin. It's a killer drug, a synthetic narcotic used as a long-term painkiller for adults. However, most prescriptions are filled with more pills than needed because of the co-pay expense and the amount would be the same for five, 20, or 80 pills. Students take this drug because it gives the feeling of warmth, protection, security, safety and well being. Stutman compares it to “being held in a mother's arms.” It is highly addictive and wreaks havoc on a life. The reason the drug is so elusive is because you appear straight and many users cannot be picked out. It also does not interfere with the ability to interact, as Rush Limbaugh hid his use from the public everyday. The perniciousness of the drug kills children every day. The high risk of death comes from the vomiting or aspirating when one is passed out due to the nature to fall deeply asleep. Children pass out on their backs and vomit, then aspirate and die. Heath Ledger died from OxyContin being used to treat depression.
• Is there a color of skin to a drug addict? Yes, 78 percent are white.
• Are they city children? No, twice as high in rural areas.
• What about suburbs? Fifteen percent higher in the suburbs.
• Public or private schools? Private schools are 15 percent higher, except faith-based private schools are lower by 15 percent.
• What about intelligent children? Some of the smartest children are drug users
Parents response to drug and alcohol use is that it's happening, but “not my child!”
Many children in the audience said that parents overlook alcohol use as rite of passage for children. Some parents serve to minors still! Children said, parents are OK with them drinking!
Children said, “We do not drink without the purpose of getting blitzed!”
The two most addictive substances are cocaine and alcohol.
Some students claimed to use marijuana three times a week since middle school, but debated that they could stop any time. They were not addicted!
Two biggest drugs in this school are marijuana and adderall.
Adderall was always referred to as the drug to stay awake. Used to treat ADHD, it is widely available in medicine cabinets. Children crush it and snort it or ingest it.
The most accurate trait to lead to addiction or substance abuse is age of first use. The younger age of first use, the higher rate of addiction.
If your child makes it to 19 or 20 and doesn't have a problem, chances are they won't.
What drug is the predictor drug? What drug is the key drug being used that will usually predict a drug problem later on? Tobacco! This number predicts drug use. This number can be one to seven, with the highest number predicting less drug abuse.
Also important is the number of nights the family eats together. The average time families interact with their students is only nine minutes a day. If family dinners were more prevalent, it would increase the time you have everyday to share with your child, talk things over and know what they are doing and who they are with.
Suggestions by the presidential family: Play roses and thorns at the table ... What was the worst thing about your day? What was the best thing about your day?
Our country has a substance abuse epidemic! Who do most families go to when their child has a problem? Clergymen. However, clergy have no formal training of drugs. So, use your clergymen and train them and have clergy reach their captive audiences to discuss drug abuse!
What age should we begin to discuss these issues with children? Guess what? Fourth grade is too late! Start at 6 or 7 years of age by starting to discuss “good medicine” or “bad medicine” and that no one should ever give you medicine except the parent!
Can your community look itself in the mirror and say “we tried everything” to prevent this death? If the community has not all come together to do everything they can to prevent drug or alcohol abuse, then there will always be “collective guilt” when a tragedy happens.
Many suggestions from Bob Stutman
1. Learn, learn, learn. Start with his Web site, which links to many informational sites about drugs and their effects: www.thestutmangroup.com.
2. Read “High Society” by Joe Califano, the finest book on substance abuse.
3. See a film called “Traffic,” a most accurate depiction of drug abuse.
4. Get to parents and realize it takes all of us.
5. Start mandatory education for parents, like a three-hour drug and alcohol course for parents, and make it mandatory!
6. Give children a reason to not use drugs; educate them! There is 50 percent lower usage rate for children who are educated.
7. Children are using your pills. Lock them up!
8. Need a peer-to-peer program where children use each other to understand how to deal with drugs and peer pressure! It takes three days for a lab report to detect what's in a drug. Our children test the drugs by sticking it into them and seeing what happens!
How do you know what you are taking?
Awesome presentation and I wish the Skaneateles children and parents could have heard it!
Marianne Angelillo is a
PACT board member
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