001oh okay we could use this in like a descriptor yeah hello everyone and thank you for coming um [Music] agenda for tonight so as you can see we'll do an introductions with our panelists a question that was kind of already pulled together before so here at LP schools the process of continuous Improvement it's ongoing and ever-changing because students and Families where Innovation and critical thinking are encouraged yeah awareness she is Health Department she serves as a coalition chair of smoke indeed smoke-free Indy she needs tobacco prevention and work or correct tobacco prevention work in schools multi-unit Housing and Community Outreach she also does crime chronic disease initiatives uh and she has been a certified health education specialist s um High School ambassador from the state of Indiana she's also part of Girl Scout neighborhood against
002substance abuse youth council is a fair role model [Music] Recovery Center he has over 35 years of experience in substance use as substance use disorder counselor he also has degree in Psychology from Indiana University and is a licensed clinical addiction counselor he is a certified of your mission educator through the prevention Research Institute he is also part of the board of directors for Indiana counselor Association of alcohol and drug use and the board of directors Mental Health America indeed he is CEO of the Miller Care Group and [Music] actually go onto this team so yeah Miss Christine Christina lime and she is also an LT parent um she's very passionate uh by addiction she is um [Music] we have joke Center who's also with Miller character he is a peer recovery coach he is a
003supporter of Healthy Living experiences and enjoys helping people find ways to enjoy life without the need of a mind-altering experiences he also has been in recovery for five plus years which is awesome and I was helping those around him not be around the same path that uh each other and then we had officero who will be coming he is more on speedy is okay okay so before we get into questions because the title of our um presentation right that's funnel the the misconception that individuals have around it because the common conversations I have is oh it's just water vapor it's not that bad it's better than staying correct um and so I just wanted to ask her just kind of gave us a quick feel on you know why we need to really encourage our
004youth not to engage in dignity cool so I'll try to do this without any like pictures or anything like that off the top of my head but um they're commonly referred to obviously as Vapes we hear that um or vape products vaping devices but the Techno technical term is that they're an electronic nicotine delivery system so they are specifically meant to use some kind of liquid that is a mixture rings and different chemicals and and nicotine to deliver that in what like Tasha said it looks like a vapor but we really know what this is though is an aerosol so really similar to like spray paint hairspray things like that it doesn't just dissipate it doesn't just like disappear in the air um it's actually getting really deep into your lungs because it does have
005that aerosolization um in the products so when you're breathing it in it kind of has that same kind of sticky residue that you might think of in Hairspray things like that there are just so many different kinds of products so e-cigarettes really came on the market in around 2011 they were traditionally marketed to adults they looked just like cigarettes they lit up red at the end and then as they kind of grew in technology and popularity we really saw the them change into what you might see as like mods or they're like the really big Square devices because they're modifiable you can kind of fill them with whatever you want or vape pens which are kind of similar and then what they're we're seeing a lot now with youth is that they are rechargeable devices
006so you might have heard of products like Jewel or Puff bar they oftentimes look like a USB drive and they are they have pods that kind of have that E-liquid or the e-juice and then that contains the nicotine and the other chemicals I'm sure we're going to go over lots of other stuff so I'll just leave it there um so yes so how we're going to do these questions we really wanted to make it a flow of this session so if you guys are just kind of chime in um you know when it um and then we'll move on to the next to the next okay the questions that were chosen for this discussion was really just to kind of get the confidence kind of some of the questions that I've heard from parents from
007staff members so that's kind of where we drew these and then um we'll just keep going on from there okay okay so the first question it was what are some some warning signs parents and or adults tend to miss with noticing drug and alcohol use were abused in their children if anybody wants to kind of chime in on either what those learning times look like that you guys are aware of whether it be from you know you know stories or personal um I'll actually kick it off so I think some of the warning signs are when your child begins to hang out with a new group of friends suddenly they become secretive and they're deleting things out of their phone new behaviors that kind of Acts isolated a little bit from you um and with
008Team Behavior those things can you know they can become you know a little bit more isolated from their parents but there are certain uh signs to look out for and I think that looking through your child's phone is a good place to start to see are they um [Music] we don't know being an LT School parent I run into some challenges and so um I think just being aware of who your kids friends are is a good place to start to know what warning signs to look out for because if you're not looking for them then you won't find them yeah I can add some like physical signs too like specifically with nicotine addiction like things like dry mouth like maybe more inattentive than normal I think that's hard sometimes to point out with teens
009um if their mood changes things like that but um depressive moods anxiety are all a symptoms of withdrawal with nicotine so um kind of being able to maybe see some of those things might help because you're really noticing addiction at that point but also like smelling sweet flavors like randomly smelling bubble gum or vanilla creme brulee something like that most likely it is going to be that that Vapor product what are some other signs associated with um THC things which which in parents kind of be aware of so with the Vapes it's just like cigarettes they won't appeal to the masses cigarettes have a bed stick one never went towards these things and just like anybody else that wants to sell abroad now that THC is more widely available why don't they do the same
010thing that the other large corporations are doing which is confuse it with actual actually take their towards the more acceptable and easier to conceal to make them look exactly the same but the only problems especially will kind of state that we're doing now there's lots of bootlegs you can look for the typical Trends the glossy eyes the red eyes is clinky eyes but kind of stupefy behavior when it comes to their THC I mean they're pretty strong actually look really strong much stronger than like an actual marijuana cigarette doing whatever you want to call it so that we should be able to see the difference in the behavior because actually quite easily the main thing you have to worry about though aren't really the blue legs because they will siphon it from these products from
011other states and put in whatever they want end of just going in their lungs and not only that they bring them with THC but they're going to see that being used for all my guys now just because it's an easier delivery system it's easier to conceal it's easier to fool other people because I think it's just a regular nicotine pad and they get smaller and smaller all because that's what it appeals to the masses so be very careful because what might seem like is may not be no China as well and I like the question about what parent what parents some of the obvious ways of behavior changes and Things Are things are very important when we're missing out on I like the fact that you said the odd smells sound I think is key
012you know so somebody's wearing a lot more cologne there's a weird couple other ones that people Miss often or unexplained injuries so a lot of times when people are the influence of stuff they bump into things your child still has some injuries maybe something going on there an increase in illnesses all the vapings and all the things that you're bringing into your lungs can cause respiratory you'll make this illnesses in a child um just want to welcome Dr Miller thank you for uh coming out no thank you very much we just kind of started with the first question we went over um what type of warning signs would you do you would you like to share um with families that may or may not be missed in kids that are basically [Music] business altered in
013some tasks question for me we asked everyone oh okay um you know the issue is that that For Better or Worse all of us are guilty of experimentation um it doesn't matter whether your parents say don't do that in fact the impetus of being told don't do that enhances the oh my gosh I've got to try it my parents are hiding something for good the problem is that they're going to experiment there's not a darn thing you can do about it I think the key is to educate say look here's the benefits here's the risks um you have to be realistic um it's more an educational process the question is when do you find out that they have experimented how do you react and how do you intervene and I think the honest key is
014to say look here's the black and white facts you know you yes you are 15 and therefore you believe you have immortality and it's not true that here are you know and again the peer pressure is a powerful motivation hugely powerful and I think that the key at least in my mind is to get to the community you know talk to the kids and explain that they may listen they may not we have a huge addiction practice as you know you know with um 38 50 and 60 year old adolescents and they're experimented they believe yourself um I don't know that anybody has a good answer to the question I think that education and recognition that it's going to occur is that key in that matter just saying look this is a bad idea here's
015why I don't recommend you do it because here's your possible possible if and when something bad happens then you say hey not good in terms of the school itself I mean I'm a hardliner you know I basically say this is not tolerated in school this is not tolerated there will be no vaping there will be no smoke this is not allowed and for these reasons black and white and then you end it at that point I think the problem is that there's too much application by parents and I think that's where all this starts that the parents need to intervene early and explain Educators positions we are not policemen we are here to educate provide guidance support and heal after but I think the owners clearly a place um the question was just what are
016the local trains [Music] guys okay so um we kind of touched on like morning Styles I just wanted to kind of share like what are some of the reasons um we're finding that teens are related to try outside of like just wanted to experiment and we talked about um peer um influences but what are some other things that you guys attracts them to using Vapes or just substance in general um because it's sometimes it's not always and it's not always just experience meditation [Music] I don't know why you know how to communicate so if you guys don't mind sharing with you guys yeah so I know a lot of my peers uh specifically I'm from New Pal high school so still still a senior in high school so I know a lot of people in
017my school um they talk about how vaping kind of takes away their anxiety or takes away their stress um depression you know all of the mental health effects that they're feeling I know that's one of the reasons why they do it and they say you know it takes it away for a certain amount of time but then all their feelings come back so then they get to get and then they go away again and addiction and then it just leads to you know big against tobacco to more marijuana THC is super popular in high schools now specifically we had somebody recently get caught with one so it's the marketing tactics that big tobacco uses so they do those things on purpose create those products to look really technology like Savvy they create those candy flavors
018um you see like Vape products or e-cigarettes being used on like Netflix and YouTube and influencers when you go into a gas station you're inundated with the marketing for tobacco products not just e-cigarettes so we know that youth report on our survey that we do every two years across the state that flavors their access to it and seeing things like in movies and places like that are a big influence because it really does play into that misconception that it's like safe or not that big of a deal especially the like flavoring when you buy something that is like named something silly after an apple juice or you know your first reaction is a teenager is going to be the best um so I think that is a big role into it as well as well
019um I would say that um teens a lot of times think they're missing out on them and so in the accessibility like she mentioned really nowadays kids can order these things online and parents not even know that these things are being delivered to the doorstep unfortunately and that even goes to the marijuana Vapors and so I think it's just the fact that it's so easily accessible all their friends are doing it and wanting to fit in is a big fact or in that [Music] happier than me I wanted to do what they did and I was always looking for something new just because um along with that though bathing it doesn't seem like such a huge damage that's being done some of the babes and babes oh no one's seen the real effects of it
020it's not something instantaneous we're actually kind of Fear Factor to it they do it 100 times they don't see anything about what they consider it's a positive effect and they completely undermine the negative effects that could be happening if things were more stood out as this is dangerous it wouldn't be so appealing that just because it's like bubblegum makes it safe a portion of people are going to start using um for mental health issues anxiety depression and stuff my experience is that the majority are not starting for those reasons it's more the Curiosity and the peer pressure at the younger age it's my older brother's doing it I don't be cool like him I won't be included I don't want to be that guy at the party that's not doing what everybody else is doing
021so it's not so overt peer pressure because I just want to be included I don't be left out kind of thing in a curiosity part of everyone's playing into it obviously the flavors thing makes it more appealing my cousin has a diabet either so it must be okay I mean the other categories we just let out Rebellion could just have that chip and shoulder contact disorders maybe uh it really is at the Adolescent level breaks out of curiosity I just heard a uh this morning and I don't know if you're aware Jewel was the number one manufacturer of vaping was buying 800 million dollars I would stand corrected on the amount for marketing to juveniles adolescence 800 million yeah so it was actually a part of one of the lawsuits because they were selling in
022his schools and doing like big big prevention and asking teachers to leave and doing all kinds of like things to deceive children and the schools we do this in our class for the education as well make a list of common characteristics of someone who's dependent on substances and things it's very stereotypical um homeless four grades and IG whatever and that's not the typical person out there that's doing it so it's not going to be so noticeable that people that are depressed are going to bring into the fiction for people to have bad dreams losing drugs or whatever is going on so like you were saying earlier the family's got an intervene lead by example uh early it's easy to work into conversation something happens on TV on a TV show it's a good opportunity to
023start a conversation about with that guy on the TV was doing and the song I heard but the friendly school was doing their stuff make sure to make a list people say I can't identify any of those I'm a straight A student and I'm a captain of football team I must be okay those are questions we haven't mentioned it yet that in the amount of nicotine that are in these products is astronomical compared to the access if somebody is able to smoke cigarettes they can't do it indoors almost everywhere unless they're in their own vehicle or in their own home there's laws pretty much to protect you almost anywhere you go in Marion County but if you are vaping a product that is really easily to hide because I mean I know we see this
024in schools too but adults do it as well in restaurants or maybe your friend doesn't care that they that you use those products in your car and in one of those pods is equal to at least when kids are vaping here and there like off of a friends product or their own product or they're you know doing challenges in classes or after school I think really relaunch because the part of it is because of the way the products are created and those candy flavors and all those different ways so when we talk about like the nicotine addiction that they're facing it is not like just oh I want my kid to quit oh like I'm just going to take it and it'll be fine plenty of people I know have stopped smoking cold turkey like
025all of these things like on average it takes adults eight times to quit nicotine so expecting youth to have that same mindset is it's just a really tall order and recognizing the kind of addiction that they're in I think I think is kind of justice is important I think we know that less risky kind of mentality from people in general you're less risky does not mean safe yeah right so it could be less risky and still extremely dangerous so they agree with less have a type of risk yeah still dangerous and even as we were talking about like we don't see the health effects immediately you know a smoker might start to feel the health effects in a we're in two weeks um but like our kids are guinea pigs right now um we don't
026know we have Decades of research of tobacco we traditional tobacco use we don't have that same kind of problem at four teens so even going into schools and trying to do prevention we do have to kind of have some of those conversations around like big tobacco is like they're duping you on purpose and like this is you know safer doesn't mean safe like all these things because we can't bring in Black belongs from the state products because it just doesn't exist we don't have that um full evidence quite yet and just to feedback we'll go to the next question uh but same thing with marijuana on the streets um you started all this all my faulted man there's so much marijuana in there because um I grew up in the 80s um they're totally different
027products marijuana back in the 70s 80s was like temperature something that might be so it totally happens in oranges so really can barely cause the same drugs so much stronger so the research was trying to find out the research was based off of 10 THC marijuana landline research on that I have a whole lot of research on 30 40 THC some of the Edibles can be 89 charge and stuff there's very little research especially cumulative long-term studies on what big doses of 80 THC will do a wonderful things to the base that's now the average THC so it's not the same as what it was back in the day some people it's a complete block there's a huge change in mentality and personality because it is such high strength they're trying to maximize their product
028so they can stand out from the next person and we're surrounded by the states competing with each other so they're constantly going to be we're going to out through the next person create the strongest thing the quickest thing the easiest and I think that's important for the education of the parents so speaking of other parents but a lot of parents probably have that attitude of well I smoke marijuana when I was a kid it's okay kind of thing you didn't touch this this is not what what you are not your mother's marijuana is that this is something totally different on the streets um here there was a question foreign [Music] impact like our initiative or you know substance prevention um intervention in our view because that I meet with kids regularly and they're like you
029know well it's it's legal in Illinois or it's legal in Michigan and I reiterate it's never going to be legal for under 18. where you are so you feel like this is going to have an impact uh with the prevention initiative that we're all trying to kind of push as an addictionologist I have it's dichotomy for me I'm going into a completely opposite direction um to explain that one I I I'm not convinced that marijuana is a gateway drug I far forward too many of those 70s and that are not into any substances um and so on one hand no I'm not buying it you know there are plenty of people that have no experience with marijuana limited and are doing all the horrible stuff the other side to the coin however is is that
030we are seeing I don't want to say an increased prevalence but increased recognition of mental illness in young kids and we see this in adults 80 of substance abusers have some form of mental illness dual diagnosis not recognized not treated you have a lot of what I have actually call pill Mills where all they're doing is treating their mental illness with Street opioids fentanyl whatever and then they convert to a legal opioid methadone or Suboxone and that's how they're treating their anxiety depression bipolar schizophrenia PTSD the point I want to make is that if we do not recognize that these children have some form of mental illness be it ADHD being something along those lines depression anxiety whatever and it is not recognized and treat it that they are going to self-treat and marijuana is
031and will be an easy access you know like gummies Edibles uh smoke a joint I'm feeling better my anxiety is better my depression is better so again it's kind of a dichotomy I I don't want to see it and yet what else is there you know we as medical professionals are not generally doing the job that we need to do and that's why there's so much of this addiction crisis because we're not doing it eighty percent of substance abuse or subtle diagnosis you don't treat it they treat it themselves the same goes for children and so I think it's incumbent upon us to look for what are these kids need what can we do because again experimentation they're going to try it the key is to solve the problem so that when they try it
032they're not solving the problem themselves I do think that the legalization um will make it a lot easier for adolescents to access it because once it starts being sold here in Indiana it means that Vapes are already easy to buy online you know uh but I think if there are dispensaries here in Indiana but it is going to make it easier for the warm here um and so yeah what I would hope too is that I think right now we're kind of in a desert of resources for things for teens for marijuana and I'm sure you know that trying to find them for your school um and I think some of that is because it's illegal so in my silver lining I guess I'm thinking of that that I would hope that while I understand
033it might increase the access to individuals who are not legal to buy things like that that it actually would help us with some of the evidence-based prevention that we're missing in our community can I ask the officer a question and what a person um what ages are you see are you you know right now it's decriminalized and you guys by virtue of you know are not popping them unless they have large amounts what are you seeing in the Adolescent are you seeing a lot of small amount marijuana in the Adolescent okay so to give you kind of an overview of who I am and where I come from I spent 31 years as an Indianapolis metropolitan police officer 28 of those I spent on the street as a regular Road officer I was very very
034much one of the first ones to go through the program of learning how to deal with mental health issues uh and and was part of the initiation of that I was actually a trainer at that time so it was very important for for all of us to have the the basics of understanding how to deal with the compulsive behaviors and the mental health issues that may go along with a lot of that so bringing all that in I spent my last three years as before I retired as a prescription fraud Detective so that kind of broadened my view a little bit more on the abuse patterns as it pertains to the opioids and you know I'm bringing in my street side because I worked at the areas that I worked with very much predominantly predominant
035with uh cocaine use heroin use prostitution so I get to see all the all the levels on a daily basis on dealing with with uh with those that were on substance abuse the liquor stores that open up at seven o'clock in the morning you know all those attitudes now in that saying I've retired in 2020 came to the schools full time prior to that I was working as a part-time officer for the district so I've been around for a very long time most of the people in the district have seen me at many many different events in Vegas so with all that being said what I'm seeing now is an officer that's in the building on a full-time basis and I'm a I'm kind of a fly on the wall I'm very observant I stay
036back I don't poke up my nose in a lot of things but I like to listen to what's being said by the two by the young people I'm seeing I hear a lot from my middle school people and Mr Lynch that that we're having that it's becoming a very much a problem that is a it's every day it's every period uh it's bad you have to go guard the bathrooms too to to to have the prevention to keep these kids from getting into the veins and we're seeing most of the Vapes and it'd probably be in my measurement a two to one for every one nicotine Vape I pick up I'm gonna get to and what I'm hearing today as I've been going through and listening to a lot of things is we're starting to
037see that increase in the elementary level uh Upper Elementary so be the metric fifth and sixth graders and they're getting this stuff from their their own their own siblings covid really was very bad for for our school-aged children because they had this time at home where they were where there was not a lot of supervision and they found victims they found that this was a way to ease anxieties or in their minds anxieties and there wasn't a lot of information that was put out available about the the the seriousness of what they were taking into their bodies you know a lot of us in here can go back to the old smoking days you know and and talk about yeah we saw them in the magazines and the commercials on TV uh you know and
038we understand that process of how we came from the the tobacco Banks I mean this vaping issue is is really ramped itself up to a higher speed than we ever saw with tobacco and it is really really hitting our younger generations and we're seeing it so much now it affects every I mean every process of moving through the school I in fact today with Tasha dealing with two young men who are in one of our our last programs for uh before being sent home on home access only because you know they burn every every bridge that they had at the school level and it was all over vape pens and one of them you know hands it off to another kid so I've got to spend time trying to figure out who that person is
039another boy prior to that I we took two pennies last week on a random search that uh you know because we'll do that periodically and it's not unusual to pull five six seven weed pins The Capes off of them on a regular basis depending we've got a group that we know now that's that's uh within our Latino community that are selling those States and it's it's trying to just stay ahead of trying to keep a finger on the pulse of what's going on so I mean it to me this has taken over at a much greater rate than I've ever seen anything else I used used to be a little bit of marijuana here and there I'm not seeing it if I'm doing random searches it's always going to be a big thing it's always
040gives me a big thing very rarely if I pick up anything else than any more on a random search so it to me the the pins have really become a major issue within the school and just to add in to kind of back down to to get the parents off the panic button or whatever so so research-wise research is about of 12th graders about [Music] um but we're trying to keep up for not having so we're focusing on the 30 yeah so when you're talking about you know you found this in on this kid they were 70 kids you didn't find [Music] realize that most of the time in in my aspect of this school and the administrator we're dealing with a 10 group right honestly we're dealing with the 10 group who are creating
041a very much majority of the problems am I seeing it with some of the Elder the some of the better kids the ones you don't usually have problems with not as often but they're they're there and you know you're going to have those and and the biggest thing is just you know me having graduated two three kids from the schools and I have grandkids that are one in high school and one in middle school I get to listen to to their conversations and and it's interesting to hear the that whole change from when my children were students in the 2000s to their students in the 2020s and then thinking back when I was a student in the 1970s it is quite quite the difference and I I I know that as parents it's hard to
042to say you know I I know my children and I thought I knew mine I'm telling you they threw curveballs to me as I got to talk to them as adults I was like where in the world did that come from you know and so uh I mean they they will experiment they will do I mean better as young people ourselves growing up we did our things too I mean we we just can't say our children are going to be perfect we'd like them to be we just can't say that thing and we just got to hope that uh having conversation and that to me that's the biggest thing my years on the streets uh I'm dealing with people on a one-to-one basis in their houses and dealing with their their issues and it's communication
043is so huge uh there's that lack of communication really becomes that problem and that's when they start searching for those other things so always if I if I was to say one thing is always have that open Communication channel with your children don't be afraid to talk about what what you did as a student it's a young person because they need to hear your mistakes you know and how to how you push past things [Music] are you guys finding similar concerns or trends um [Music] what are you what are you are you guys [Music] like what are you guys seeing as well yeah I think it's hard um to say like oh yeah some kids you I think um tobacco and THC is definitely an equal opportunity um addiction so I don't you know devices
044they don't know your race your gender your sexuality your GPA you think your income like you know what sports you play I think it's just like if a kid sees it if a kid has a friend who uses it and they convince them to do it they're most likely going to do it unless they've been properly educated to say no the correct way like some of the other school districts that we know that Orange Township isn't the only one that's seeing like similar things we know that um schools across the county are trying to figure out how to address um the situation and I think it just it always kind of comes back to like the misconceptions around the products the easy access they had to it and the level of nicotine that they're taking
045into her body it is a it's a serious issue that is going to have to be solved by a community like you know we know that this would be the only we can't be the only spot right there's got to be other like intervention and resources and families need to be educated and all of these things because even like we're saying with you know we want parents to be good um role models for them but we run into all kinds of adults that feel the same way that feel that it's like not as bad or maybe they're trying to quit cigarettes and they think vaping is a better option so there is it is going to be a community-wide like way and resource and whatever is going to take to solve the problem because our
046kids aren't addicted now I don't know how else to say that they are severely addicted if they can't go 10 minutes you know I know some of them are like you know try to be funny in class when they're they're kids and they're trying to push buttons but if they can't go 10 minutes in a classroom without leaving knowing that they're going to risk being caught and those things like those are signs of addiction and we have to have ways and structure is set in place where it's not just get out give me the device or you know whatever the punitive measure that we most of the time have set in place like we're we're going to have to find ways to kind of show I think schools um some schools don't do a proper
047job of punitive measures like you said a lot of schools do out of school suspension but if you give a kid a chance to go home they might have another device even if you take their first device away that they get caught using at school they could have many other devices or siblings who have these devices they have so much more access being out of schools has been I've been being in school getting a program to them you know we can't just make them quit cold turkey we have to meet them where they are we can't just this you can't do this this is bad this is battery health here's why we have to we have to give them more than just you can't do it yeah and just like it's like for going out
048to schools too we see that a lot we have schools that want want um education like want us to come out and talk to assemblies and like do all these things which is good but uh it comes down to it's just not really evidence-based practice in the first place to get kids to listen they don't know me from Joe schmel they're not listening to the teachers in the first place so while we have I think really good educational resources like we need peer support like Brenna like in her schools like we need things that are open conversations with our kids like small classrooms where we can really have those open and honest conversations about like why they're doing it so that they can help build their own future I think especially when talking about middle
049school and high schoolers you know they're trying to find their own way their own autonomy in the world and people are telling them what to do and their brain isn't fully there yet you know they're not 25 and all the synapses haven't connected quite yet um so having like opportunities to have those conversations let them build their own decision making too and one of the things that we have started to do we've always done that um we can't always talk about like I've said like about the health effects all the time because we don't have a lot of research about long-term health effects but it's one of the reasons why we like to talk to youth about big tobacco marketing and the way that they're like being targeted on purpose and in different um cultural
050groups too we know that big tobacco targets like black and brown neighborhoods they inundate those gas stations and places of sale with information we know that they're using you know flavors and things like that so we use so trying to kind of point out so that they can hopefully have some of that life context maybe try to make a better decision for them you guys kind of touched on this the next question is kind of what are some proactive strategies or other programs um you guys can you know kind of a Down the Line um limited organization guys offered um you know I I yeah I'm big on communication as my my staff will ruthfully shake their heads and go oh my gosh yes he is um you know I think the key is and
051we do this with our adult substance users to say what's your goal yes I know you're 13 you're 14. now I'm not asking you what you're specifically going to do but what's your game plan what's your goal what do you want to be when you grow up and that's a question I ask the adults and I think that's appropriate to ask kids you are 14 years old what do you want to do well I want to play great that's great you want to play baseball you want to be a probate is what you're doing now conducive to that you've got a wonderful goal are you going to get there doing what you're doing and you allow them to to prognosticate you allow them to fantasize but as you said the communication is important and I
052think it's realistic to let them set a placeholder yes this is what I want to do and then allow them to come to the conclusion that maybe what they're doing is probably not the best way to achieve their goal you know we try to keep it simple and again we do that with our adults you are a 38 year old man you've been on fentanyl for eight years what do you do for a living well I'm a construction guy well how fantastic do you like you know are you finishing Carpenter what do you want to do and then of course it's well or you want to go back to work and I'm amazed because a lot of people say you know if I ever get away from my fat no my heroin my methamp you
053know I think I want to be a drug counselor what a fantastic opportunity you have fabulous experience you have expertise you know how do you think you're going to get them well first I got to get sober absolutely an accident I gotta get my anxiety taken care of and then and I think the same scenario would work and it doesn't work right with kids you simply ask them what do you want to do how do you get there and is what you're doing now conducive and you let them take as much control of it as you can it's not harsh it allows them to do the leading and I think it has great potential it does it work don't know still in the experimentation stage and elected the bathing thing we'll know in five ten
054years but one thing I realize is all of us in this room are like that I'm assuming that most of us have turned out fine and so I think that I don't want to be a Harbinger do you know the 10 that are the bad ones we talk about I don't know that that 10 is going to grow up and and continue to be bad all the way along we have more and more than finally say you know this has not happened and I'm not happy with my lifestyle I'm not happy coming out of prison I'm not happy not seeing my children I'm not happy spending my money on dope there's got to be a better way and I'm going to start the problem is much like adolescents the brain neurons are just not connected
055quite yet and it's a switch we've talked about that the flicking of the switch all of a sudden one day we go from being obnoxious teenage adolescents to humans once again it was all there and the same thing for ourselves abusers they suddenly for some reason it just wake up because I asked why not last week why not last month why not three months ago and the answer is I don't know no acceptable answer at all and um I think one of the things that we do very well is we have a mental health counseling a psychiatric that isn't a must in our program so someone comes in for substance abuse or if they're if they're not at a point where they need the substance abuse maybe during we set them up with the counseling
056and under addressing those underlying mental illnesses whether it's depression or anxiety or something greater is very important because Dr Miller mentioned earlier the self-medicating continuity we also have our peer recovery Coach Joe and he does a fantastic job with being able to meet people where they are and help them to realize why do you want to keep going down this path and what the reason for change is and we also have a DNA matching urine um so we're able to tell if someone's urine is their urine and we're able to tell if someone has nicotine in their urine and many other substances so that is one of the things that you can do be proactive give them your experience of you are worried but our program offers so much benefits to be able to help
057these adolescents get off of substances and we do 13 and up anybody um committing Fairbanks from the prevention so anyway blew my little speech there's usually two pools of mentality prevention versus treatment or whatever um I'm going to be very extreme in my example so I apologize for stepping on everybody's toes or whatever treatment basically is we're going to wait around wait for this person get addicted and I would try to help them get off their drugs and stuff but prevention is let's try to keep them from getting one in the first place so and now probation I just spent it's been 30 years and both sides of it but my focus is prevention so yeah I like your programs around for medications Behavioral Health education residential recovery coaches so for the prevention thing very
058much like doctors talk about we use the prime for Life program educational program called THC educational program for communication-wide program and they do a very similar thing we do we go over it because what you're doing we use Tire Locus is this risking your value system or your goals or whatever so again it could be a risk of [Music] as well focus on the prevention some Lawrence for I'm going to talk about us at the township so what we do and what we do between our two high schools and our two middle schools is uh as of this year our two middle schools we've hired a full-time resource officer to be in the buildings and just kind of be visible we're all about building the relationships the one thing that I've learned in my time
059is relationships are as a policeman last forever and that and that was one of my big things working in the neighborhoods that I did was building relationships so when I visited the buildings that's my big one problem thing I always do but we are very we're proactive to the point where we do random spot checks at doors when we do and we'll switch them between buses and parent Riders and where we'll do some Bag checks we've actually had two dogs that work in the district and that are our detection dogs and uh I know Michelle who's the officer works here at Fall Creek her dog she's been working with him to be tapped the baby the the vape pens especially the case uh so and she's been having very good success with that so I
060mean we're trying to stay proactive in them our big thing though is building those relationships because when we do find and locate those things we try to get them to Posh it out and and we're trying to get trying to get into a point where we're having open conversations with I always tell the children now it's like look I'm retired even though I still have to do some parts of the policing decided in the training I'm retired and I want to maintain that retirement status I don't want to have to call the officer and put me outside to come in because the situation has gone bad and and you know with with the vape pens and the cakes it's a little bit different I mean the laws are very they're big and they're ambiguous and
061there's no no clear definition you know as to the percentages on the Delta eights and the Delta nines you know and so the kids that they they may be thinking they're getting a Delta and they're really not propagating about things they're getting a Delta 9 which is really truly illegal are they illegal marijuana and it and you know and so the testing parts for us it gets a little it gets very complicated and so we want to be proactive in the point that we want to identify as many as we can and when we can and get them into our trying to get into a program now and build on those things and help get the parents actively involved in bringing them into getting a better understanding and better education too for them I mean
062it is an education process this is somewhat new you know and for all of us and we're educating ourselves as we're you know trying to pass on that information to the parents so we try to do these things and be proactive and have strategies that we can build on and the nice thing is you know we're building it from the bottom and we're we're trying to cover as much as we can in a lot of areas that involving very a very eclectic group we're doing a restorative practices for part of our punishment uh not punishment I shouldn't say punishment it's not punishment it's about working and keeping them in the building and keeping them in school and keeping them through that educational process and the school I work at has involved me as to be
063a part of the panel and sit down and help you know build this thing from the bottom and so what that gives is a nice perspective so I can take that back to all our group and build them there the fun part about Lawrence Township too is most of the guys they see walking around on the inside are fire they're not policemen you know so we use our Public Safety family in such a rounded way to to Really build in those relationships and try to get kids to see how important what every facet that we do is in that you know especially you know like I said I've worked in the mental health side quite a bit you know if I can identify a problem I want to I want to get them to the
064right person at the right time [Music] like she said um you know it's it's hard for us to want to try to help them go out of school for you know however many things are looking at but when they come back if that is you know part of the consequence I I try to meet women or put them with uh resources around the community so that they have that support and not only myself because I didn't go around our district but we also have family Liaisons we have counselors communicate with so if they see changes in Behavior I get an email hey let's let's see if we can touch bases with this prevent them from going down you know they use so we are exploring um all possible supports and options within the district to
065try to you know you know get a protection before they live and keep them in the class where they get the education and the support um that they're in need of so that's kind of just kind of you know feedback off of you guys what we're doing here anymore um yeah um that is our kind of motto is to educate engagement Empower teams to celebrate its faculty lifestyle um and with tobacco that also includes nicotine for your lifestyle as well um as a teen and um Dream Team advocacy I have noticed that teams don't like to listen um at all you can ask my mom um but I noticed that two things that teams do listen to is social media and other teams because I feel like we get from our classrooms from our friends
066from you know people our age because we don't like to listen to adults because um I mean most of the time sometimes yeah but um it's hard you know to sit in a room and listen to an adult and be like wow they're really smart and then you know you guys prove us wrong and then we're like wow maybe I shouldn't be doing these things which is awesome but um you know another thing is teens wake up every morning the first thing they do is check their phones if they see one of their favorite celebrities baby you know or smoking they're like cool maybe I should try it um so what voice does is we do a lot of social media campaigning because instead of waking up and seeing you know one of a team's
067favorite singers baby and we want them to see a voice app it's like hey here's our program here's kind of what we do um and just educate kids through social media Instagram um Twitter we have a tick tock you know things that teams are actively on to try to educate them instead of you know just going to classrooms because in a learning environment it's hard to learn so I agree with Dr Miller earlier the kids are going to experiment which I think is important parents resist the urge to panic and freak out and I'm gonna say it's a lonely but uh before about I was waiting for the station I've been I've had this conversation ready to go in my day because I was expecting this uh so I do think we can take a
068breath as parents and regroup and you can kind of go from a different angle virtual accounts biggest supporter and cheerleader I'm in your corner and I'm supporting you and this is the end of the world we can get through this um some of the other questions how do I get my child who may be resisted to get into account coaching America he suggestions for the parents to be more proactive yeah we were doing that for what we do proactively yeah um so the State Health Department actually has its faculty Association commission that funds the half of the county so Marion County is funded and that's how I get to do my job but they have a really great website Bakery Indiana that has all kinds of resources for parents for schools for youth if you're
069looking to start those kind of conversations one of the I think coolest resources that I've seen is become an ex I believe becoming x.org and parents can actually sign up to get all kinds of tips you can watch videos you can get texts all kinds of ways to print it what we're saying like keep the keep the calm a little bit maybe the freak out on the inside so that when you are having those conversations with your children or your reaction that they think you might want to have because they're just not listening um really could help in the conversations around their addiction and their views so that they can maybe either be more open to their own treatment or also just seeing maybe what they're doing isn't you know exactly what they think it
070is you know help them see some of those misconceptions you know my child is visiting for how should I put it in the house moment what's kind of like just for today's program maybe the first step to getting them I would say treating them like humans you know we all make mistakes we all like maybe make a choice that is of the healthiest for us so having an open conversation where you like ask I'm concerned about your health like these things are concerning like I want to tackle this with you um asking about like maybe what they do know about Vape products and I would definitely suggest like going back and doing your own research before you know just saying something necessarily and solving the problem but I really think that um when we would
071be respond in such a negative or like reactive manner sometimes it's going to cause a reaction from the child that is to pull back that is to start to lie more or do all those things but when we're treating them like I've made mistakes and like this is about your health and this is us doing something together I think it's a much easier conversation to at least start and to really know that it is not going to be a one day problem solve you're not going to just be able to tell them this is bad for you and then to listen so some of that acceptance might be helpful as well the thing is just make sure they know that because they're using these products it doesn't make them a bad person or a bad
072human it just means that they're not educated enough to know or maybe they are educated but um it's good as a parent yeah it's good as a parent to know exactly you know what they're getting into so being educated as a parent yourself can really help you educate your child as well because I know I just said that teens don't listen but I listen to my mom most of the time so if you can really get through to your kid and not you know don't have that angry like manner on your face just be like hey we need to have a talk we need to have a conversation this is what you're doing this is not healthy this is not what you should be doing and here's what so I don't have any kids right
073now but I do have a nephew that's in high school and I return them to the uncle where he feels comfortable talking about these things he's not comfortable with his parents the highest things and all that and I was always worried about being that guy and then things kind of switch As I got forward that's kind of like use the palace here now I agree I don't think so something's gonna happen overnight but when you first don't know you don't pick like no what do you mean this is what that guy turns into if you're not careful and trying to show him like what guy do you want to be do you know any basketball players that do this not at all and so I kind of influence this thing you know don't worry about
074it this is going to be bad it can get so much worse and trying to make it feels comfortable okay don't do that anymore what would you rather do I'm just trying to make some on that and try to make them happy and cool because I think at least for a lot of us is we use it to enhance Our Lives whether it's happiness or to cover up sadness or whatever they're trying to bring their level up on they certainly start to realize that I don't really need that I can get away from it debate and regardless of I agree make them comfortable because they're saying that they're uncomfortable like I was I completely said I did everything and I just caused a little more problems yeah my suggestion to the parents just have that
075conversation today I don't know wait until you find the paraphernalia or something you've missed a boat so the sooner you talk to the children um it's a research 12 years old for them average exposure in the different types of substances I'm sure it's lower than that now with 10 years old or whatever it is so if you're waiting until they're 10 11 12 to start these conversations social media for three years of their own opinions appropriate obviously yeah you know my own thought is that that and again the Harkens back to one of your other statements it's parental responsibility you are the child's parent you are not their friend and I think that's an important delineation to make you say look I am your father I am your mother that entitles me to certain powers
076over you until you are 18 and which Ben Michael is to make sure you live until 18 and and the point is to and I think that's that's a recent problem that we see across the board is is the abdication of responsibility um you know the paradise it's not worth it the kids are going to wear me down it's just easier and so I go to a concept battles and worse you know there's nothing wrong with letting them move into battle occasionally that's appropriate but you need to decide who's ultimately going to win the war and you say here is what and it's okay to be different on different days you know I raised two daughters I will tell you that I had a huge High bar but it was in violent my wife God
077love her who was with them on a daily basis on any given day her level changed someday she was here and that's fine was it a criticisms are great but I think it battles of the boards you set the rules you say this is the rule that we are going to follow and yes there are certain things that we can negotiate and yes there are certain things that are non-negotiable until you're 18. in terms of punishment and it's a bad word to use the problem is that as a parent you have to decide what a suitable punishment is without punishing yourself telling them that they can't go anywhere for a week means that your butt gets to stay in for a week too you know we joke about taking the bedroom door off the hinges
078which is my favorite punishment I can see Abby we're missing over there uh you know yeah then here you will have no privacy you are younger siblings will have access to your room and your stuff until you demonstrate appropriate responsibility then we will allow you privacy so it's battles of worse and again it's easy to understand because you can't punch yourself as a parent nor can you beat yourself up as a parent in the case that any of this occurs you can only do the best job you can and hope that you've taught your children your values and that they then take those and learn from them especially when I think the statistics are even greater than it's closer to 90 of high schoolers are at least trying to make things and it's about 70
079percent continue with it through varying degrees so it's going to happen it's all over the place a lot of it was was there an invite sent to parents the new generation of parents they do it they don't care there's a lot of parents that I work with and I think they've got the little Vapes and the vape pens and it was cool none of these parents nowadays back their children up that's going to be the biggest problem like he said it's a community effort so um just kind of bringing to bring out to our community like hey every family is dealing with it but we want to have this conversation there's an issue with it information we have an education about it we have the education about it not everybody knows that the one pod
080is and so we're trying to reach everybody but we've got it on videos yeah that's true information yeah and your contact information will be available I do hi so my name is Caitlin um I work at Lawrence Central High School I'm a teacher I'm one of our behavior and resource teachers there um and I would say this is a huge issue that I deal with on a regular basis so I have a few questions if that's okay um just for someone just about Vapes are there any health benefits like I don't really know if there's none that has um how old do you have to be to buy a vape 21 whether or not they have nicotine or anything in them because some of my kids say to me so my kids will say well
081it's just water no so they can't buy okay I mean they're like we've said like we know that there's other access one thing that um we should really be aware of too as parents is that there's like this new like wellness Vape thing like yeah Urban Outfitter like cells like melatonin and things like that it's really a similar concept that like we're telling people who smoke cigarettes like we want you to breathe fresh air right but that air that aerosol is still happening with those flavors and we also like part of the reason why we know it's dangerous with those flavors is that we know that like uh like popcorn lung is uh one of the things that we see from fake products and it's because of that flavoring and it's because they're inhaling it
082so I don't even remember when the big thing happened when it all happened we figured out popcorn lung but Factory workers were getting sick because they were breathing in The Buttery flavoring that they're putting on popcorn we know that that's safe to ingest it's not safe to inhale and we can really say this about a lot of those vitamins and things like that too and some of those Wellness Vapes that I you don't have to be a certain age to buy them like we don't know the safety precautions around breathing in melatonin or vitamin C or like whatever they say like like they're for sleep or they're for Vitality like whatever they are so even if they're not getting something that has nicotine in it there are a lot of other companies that are attached
083to Big tobacco products that are selling Wellness base that who knows yeah and you said like they said like you know it's just water that's like sticking your head in a pool and breathing in pool water and it's like a way to like reduce their anxiety or you know fidget like I have a lot of kids period and they have to go to the bathroom and I'm like okay I'll have to find some of these because I was actually I was a girl on Tick Tock earlier and I saw um a girl who is on there um that is trying to quit her babe and she like found these products that um because a lot of things with like coping mechanisms is like that that habit that you get about something in your hand something
084on your mouth right and they're like really similar but they have like you just you were actually breathing in air that's there's like a mess like Flavor really kind of helping with some of that because we do that similarly with people who are trying to quit cigarettes with toothpicks and peppermint and something to kind of have in their hand to help with some of that fixation I'll have to find some of those things that might be like helpful um so are there wait are there any nicotine things that are like are these Vapes that are approved by anything um in what way like for health or I don't know just like a regularly so they're upgrade to be on the market to sell um we saw like I think like tens of thousands of products
085get pulled off when we had that flavor ban which is why Jewel has kind of dropped in some of their like market value um and why we saw other companies um like puff bar because they're disposable so Jewel had that that pod that you had to put in the device and those flavors were taken off of the market and then obviously you know billion dollar companies we're already ahead of you and kind of figured out and so they have a lot of those now in a disposable that's why you can get them in raspberries vanilla all of those different kinds of flavors but they are not a cessation device they're not approved by anyone to help anyone quit adults or children yeah and disposables I say are probably the most popular in high school besides
086the THC vape pens but disposables are the easiest I think for teens to get their hands on just because um like you can use it for a certain amount of time and then you can ask somebody to buy it for you that's over 21 or get it through somebody else at school and then use it again until it's up and then you can get another one and as far as I know and there is no standardized testing of any of these problems at all so you know and it's going back to like if these things are coming in and percentages of 80 and 90 plus percent but there's no standardized you know it's like they said well this is a Delta eight Delta eight so the legal or legal to sell because you'll see the
087adapting signs at the stores or the vape shops but a lot of those things are coming in at a higher percentage which is over that Delta level but there's nobody testing these things to hold them to a standard and so that's where a lot of the problems are falling into teens or young adults say like oh I'm using like a non-nicotine version or something and they they've done all kinds things out of 10 they have their advertised for that exact reason the bait shops like like gas stations all those but you know what I mean like nobody's doing that like testing of those products there are a lot of places regardless of the age also to everybody yeah or some if a parent has a collection an older brother has a collection you're not necessarily
088counting every single one of us abundant to them makes another one goes missing whether they do uh wants to drop us when they go out and get another one not realize that someone else has already obtained it I see them with a parking lots every day they're all over the place and as well whether or not any elephant is this it's all good see it's heated up and turn into a paper but since it cools back down your mom's it's a goal again um so you said you're a prevention yes and so does our Township have a treatment more of a treatment person so no so how we do it is organizations and kind of Leave It to the family news side if they want to take that outpatient okay um and so if that's
089an option refer them a lot of what I do kind of like Ron said is building those relationships and kind of trying to okay what's your why I like to talk about like why why do we feel that you need to partake in and then from there they just try to kind of set small like smart several kids okay let's try to you know try to scale back but in the meantime let's get you Council you know keep a journal you know those whatever strategy is going to work for them um outside you know outside you know like I said we have Liaisons and all of the schools touching the family Kate and you know it's not regular movie on Facebook whatever additional resources or support you know can you get that to them and
090their family eager to work with me just out of relationship s you know we've created we see progress we see decrease in use um turning in you know such a little actions you know okay let's get rid of it let's you know find an alternative so the relationships will be the main I know we're seeing a lot of it and I know that I'm a person however we've got support in all the schools we might just be a matter of knowing who to connect with because you know staff so that you know everybody's kind of kind of aware of the resources that assemble for our families here thank you so much yeah in terms of discipline of the district like how suspension in our school have a process I know each situation is different but
091like is there at least like you know you've been put out for smoking at our school so many times required to go get some help or are they like we just keep putting them out and then they come back so I mean we do we do have tears it does vary Case by case um but we do when it does happen we do try to have as much support whether it does result in Asheville suspension or in school suspension um we are definitely trying to make the effort to not give all the way around with nothing like I said before lattice is what we have also email for the concerns you know they may not have been caught with anything but you know family history might say you know they're high risk um changes of
092the friend group might say their guys academics are dropping out of the blue hey you know can you check and okay and that again goes back to the community we know U.S teachers have a lot of kids in your classes but as you guys you know make those relationships with the restorative practice knowing our kids and just even if it's just kind of the over them making sure you layerizing them every day you'll pick up lean on the Middle School hey um it's definitely immunocritis you know and we all know as a district for us you know we can do always do a better job I mean when we identify those I mean because I mean I can stand in a central hallway and go okay which one as they come by you know and
093it's and it's trying to to identify those when we can get them at least started in the system you know so you know yeah we know we can do a lot better in in the biggest part is to identifying getting the staff to buy them I mean because I hear it all the time you know these kids this one kid keeps coming in here and it's the same smell all the time and and you know what they're talking about it's like what are you doing to help you know get this person into some kind of program using labs and get you know because I'm to the point now it's like if I catch you and you're coming in the door I'm like you need to go home and change and that's that's I because I'm
094not even going to let you walk in the building go home and and you know most of them were 18 17 18 year olds were driving and like you gotta go home come back when you're back and yeah you know and I've got to be better in identifying him most of the time I know their names and I will take that to their grade level and say hey I've had this conversation and I sent them home because of this okay I appreciate that you know they'll write the information down and that's just trying to be you know because I I don't want them I want them to understand that I'm a policeman and I have this this law mentality but I also want them to understand that my goal is to see them succeed in
095life just like everybody else and that success is also helping them see this that they don't have to have to to be succumbed to these compulsive behaviors and let it become that addiction as an adult can become a problem I I mean I can sit and tell you story after story after Story just people that I've I've dealt with in their lifetimes and some too deaf and you know just and in those behaviors and you know and it's it's hard and stepping away from one and stepping into another I can see you can have the opportunity to to kind of early intervention some of these and hell you know and try to get get some changed behaviors and change thought paths and just chime in real quick that I agree with the tears and things
096advised by by prevention mentality and education programs out so first I think something the child was caught with the vague immediately part of that intervention to be referred to the educational classes I should just be different you're not coming back to school you're not getting off in school suspension and tell you right and we do eight hours 12 hours and 20 hour classes at least an eight-hour class and I think seriously and think of something because even though the adults are going through our educational program saying why isn't this not in school and I'm like I don't know yeah I'm working on it yeah even the Indiana tobacco foot line is a free resource to all Indiana residents and they've got all kinds of different programs for youth 13 and up for those um like
097there's a behavioral health side so they've been like diagnosed with bipolar schizophrenia or just can report that you know anxiety is why they can't but there's all kinds of different programs that are fully free with people who have used tobacco before and you can get like a they could get referred to that and they can get a certificate for doing that even as like a person Association has a really great program that they can do too so there's even like some small steps too maybe before maybe get to that eight hours that might be an option to kind of refer them to that as well and so these are some of our resources um of course but because you mentioned um there are a few training that I outside of work went ahead and did
098on my own and they are so easy from American Association catch as some great resources on there as well to educate yourself and then I wanted to put Aaron's case exchange because that is actually here locally they have average school meetings for teens [Music] resource of educating yourself on just the the mix honestly the myths about some of the sum of the theater you know kids will come and say oh you know well actually you know especially apparently come back but I actually read this you know this is it's easy it's free it's got free information uh families and um [Music] were there any closing um comments or things that anyone has um share as we wrap this up or any last final questions I appreciate everyone for coming coming out giving a lot of
099information a lot of resources we will have this all available online to come earlier in the school year you know the conversations can be had to get a head start because again like I said our normal new goal is to educate our kids and you know prepare them and have them be as successful as possible and again so yes again I thank you guys being a partner