Arlington Has A Drug Problem - From Middle School to High School to Our Community at Large

[Anonymous]

One idea: The students should write up - anonymously or not (whichever they prefer) what is really going on in with drugs. It would be very interesting to hear from the students' perspective. In fact, we NEED to include the students in on these discussions.


http://bluevirginia.us/2017/05/yorktown-hs-graduating-senior-graham-weinschenk-students-smoke-pot-use-xanax-adderall

Yorktown HS: “Why do students smoke pot or use xanax or adderall?”

Editor’s update: In chatting with Graham, he adds that this problem is NOT specific to Arlington, but that he’s “had friends from Young Dems all over the country text me and tell me how much they agree with the post.”

*****************

As some of you may have heard, APS and ACPD will begin patrolling the high schools with drug-sniffing dogs. This is in response to the increased use of drugs (particularly xanax and adderall) and alcohol among the APS student body, and APS claims that these sweeps are necessary in order to address and correct the increase of drug use.

In my opinion, I don’t think law enforcement and education should be mixed at all except for the direct protection of the school. But setting that point aside for the moment, let’s talk about what APS wants to do and whether it will be effective. Short answer: No, it won’t be effective. ACPD will catch one idiot kid who brought some pot to school. They aren’t going to correct the drug problem with after school locker searches. Now, before all the parents go “Yay!!! This kid is advocating for searches during school!!!”, I’m not, and let me continue.

If APS *REALLY* wants to correct the drug problem, they need to go to the source. Why do students smoke pot or use xanax or adderall? I’ll give you a hint: it isn’t because they think that drugs have positive benefits, and it isn’t because they’re being peer-pressured into it (for the most part).

It’s because attending an Arlington high school is so. Freaking. Stressful. APS shoves AP courses on students like they’re nothing. The course load and work load for students is absolutely absurd. The load is so much that kids turn to drugs because they can’t possibly de-stress otherwise. School is still in the back of their minds with every other activity.

To be clear, I 100% do *NOT* condone drug use to deal with stress. Drugs are not an appropriate coping method, but my point is that the stress level shouldn’t be so high that kids feel that they HAVE to turn to drugs. So, if APS really wants to tackle the drug problem, they need to tackle student stress. De-stress students and the drug use will decrease. Just my theory….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One idea: The students should write up - anonymously or not (whichever they prefer) what is really going on in with drugs. It would be very interesting to hear from the students' perspective. In fact, we NEED to include the students in on these discussions.


http://bluevirginia.us/2017/05/yorktown-hs-graduating-senior-graham-weinschenk-students-smoke-pot-use-xanax-adderall

Yorktown HS: “Why do students smoke pot or use xanax or adderall?”

Editor’s update: In chatting with Graham, he adds that this problem is NOT specific to Arlington, but that he’s “had friends from Young Dems all over the country text me and tell me how much they agree with the post.”

*****************

As some of you may have heard, APS and ACPD will begin patrolling the high schools with drug-sniffing dogs. This is in response to the increased use of drugs (particularly xanax and adderall) and alcohol among the APS student body, and APS claims that these sweeps are necessary in order to address and correct the increase of drug use.

In my opinion, I don’t think law enforcement and education should be mixed at all except for the direct protection of the school. But setting that point aside for the moment, let’s talk about what APS wants to do and whether it will be effective. Short answer: No, it won’t be effective. ACPD will catch one idiot kid who brought some pot to school. They aren’t going to correct the drug problem with after school locker searches. Now, before all the parents go “Yay!!! This kid is advocating for searches during school!!!”, I’m not, and let me continue.

If APS *REALLY* wants to correct the drug problem, they need to go to the source. Why do students smoke pot or use xanax or adderall? I’ll give you a hint: it isn’t because they think that drugs have positive benefits, and it isn’t because they’re being peer-pressured into it (for the most part).

It’s because attending an Arlington high school is so. Freaking. Stressful. APS shoves AP courses on students like they’re nothing. The course load and work load for students is absolutely absurd. The load is so much that kids turn to drugs because they can’t possibly de-stress otherwise. School is still in the back of their minds with every other activity.

To be clear, I 100% do *NOT* condone drug use to deal with stress. Drugs are not an appropriate coping method, but my point is that the stress level shouldn’t be so high that kids feel that they HAVE to turn to drugs. So, if APS really wants to tackle the drug problem, they need to tackle student stress. De-stress students and the drug use will decrease. Just my theory….

Im not a student, but an adult who currently uses adderall and xanax. Ill tell you why kids use these drugs: bc they friggin work. Adderal improves cognative performance by orders of magnitude. In a couple decades, it will be the case that if you are not using it, you are at a severe disavantage. And Xanax is helpful from time to time to sleep or when anxiety hits. Be glad its not opiods.

[Anonymous]

Anyone know, did the kids who got caught at the powder puff game last week get to go to homecoming this weekend, or did their parents already get them out of trouble?

[Anonymous]

No idea. But, what are the next steps that Arlington is taking?

“With approximately 142 Americans dying every day, America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks,” the report argues. “After September 11th, our President and our nation banded together to use every tool at our disposal to prevent any further American deaths. Your declaration would empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the Executive Branch even further to deal with this loss of life.”

The opioid epidemic, explained

In 2015, more Americans died of drug overdoses than any other year on record — more than 52,000 deaths in just one year. That's higher than the more than 38,000 who died in car crashes, the more than 36,000 who died from gun violence, and the more than 43,000 who died due to HIV/AIDS during that epidemic's peak in 1995.

This latest drug epidemic, however, is not solely about illegal drugs. It began, in fact, with a legal drug.

Back in the 1990s, doctors were persuaded to treat pain as a serious medical issue. There's a good reason for that: About 100 million US adults suffer from chronic pain, according to a 2011 report from the Institute of Medicine.

Pharmaceutical companies took advantage of this concern. Through a big marketing campaign, they got doctors to prescribe products like OxyContin and Percocet in droves — even though the evidence for opioids treating long-term, chronic pain is very weak (despite their effectiveness for short-term, acute pain), while the evidence that opioids cause harm in the long term is very strong.

Painkillers proliferated, landing in the hands of not just patients but also teens rummaging through their parents’ medicine cabinets, other family members and friends of patients, and the black market.

As a result, opioid overdose deaths trended up — sometimes involving opioids alone, other times involving drugs like alcohol and benzodiazepines (typically prescribed to relieve anxiety). By 2015, opioid overdose deaths totaled more than 33,000 — close to two-thirds of all drug overdose deaths.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No idea. But, what are the next steps that Arlington is taking?

“With approximately 142 Americans dying every day, America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks,” the report argues. “After September 11th, our President and our nation banded together to use every tool at our disposal to prevent any further American deaths. Your declaration would empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the Executive Branch even further to deal with this loss of life.”

The opioid epidemic, explained

In 2015, more Americans died of drug overdoses than any other year on record — more than 52,000 deaths in just one year. That's higher than the more than 38,000 who died in car crashes, the more than 36,000 who died from gun violence, and the more than 43,000 who died due to HIV/AIDS during that epidemic's peak in 1995.

This latest drug epidemic, however, is not solely about illegal drugs. It began, in fact, with a legal drug.

Back in the 1990s, doctors were persuaded to treat pain as a serious medical issue. There's a good reason for that: About 100 million US adults suffer from chronic pain, according to a 2011 report from the Institute of Medicine.

Pharmaceutical companies took advantage of this concern. Through a big marketing campaign, they got doctors to prescribe products like OxyContin and Percocet in droves — even though the evidence for opioids treating long-term, chronic pain is very weak (despite their effectiveness for short-term, acute pain), while the evidence that opioids cause harm in the long term is very strong.

Painkillers proliferated, landing in the hands of not just patients but also teens rummaging through their parents’ medicine cabinets, other family members and friends of patients, and the black market.

As a result, opioid overdose deaths trended up — sometimes involving opioids alone, other times involving drugs like alcohol and benzodiazepines (typically prescribed to relieve anxiety). By 2015, opioid overdose deaths totaled more than 33,000 — close to two-thirds of all drug overdose deaths.

But also understand that in 2015, the overwhelmingly vast majority of drug problems in APS involved pot and alcohol. So, let's try to not be hysterical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No idea. But, what are the next steps that Arlington is taking?

“With approximately 142 Americans dying every day, America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks,” the report argues. “After September 11th, our President and our nation banded together to use every tool at our disposal to prevent any further American deaths. Your declaration would empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the Executive Branch even further to deal with this loss of life.”

The opioid epidemic, explained

In 2015, more Americans died of drug overdoses than any other year on record — more than 52,000 deaths in just one year. That's higher than the more than 38,000 who died in car crashes, the more than 36,000 who died from gun violence, and the more than 43,000 who died due to HIV/AIDS during that epidemic's peak in 1995.

This latest drug epidemic, however, is not solely about illegal drugs. It began, in fact, with a legal drug.

Back in the 1990s, doctors were persuaded to treat pain as a serious medical issue. There's a good reason for that: About 100 million US adults suffer from chronic pain, according to a 2011 report from the Institute of Medicine.

Pharmaceutical companies took advantage of this concern. Through a big marketing campaign, they got doctors to prescribe products like OxyContin and Percocet in droves — even though the evidence for opioids treating long-term, chronic pain is very weak (despite their effectiveness for short-term, acute pain), while the evidence that opioids cause harm in the long term is very strong.

Painkillers proliferated, landing in the hands of not just patients but also teens rummaging through their parents’ medicine cabinets, other family members and friends of patients, and the black market.

As a result, opioid overdose deaths trended up — sometimes involving opioids alone, other times involving drugs like alcohol and benzodiazepines (typically prescribed to relieve anxiety). By 2015, opioid overdose deaths totaled more than 33,000 — close to two-thirds of all drug overdose deaths.

Someone posted this article on another thread about opiods: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain

It's a great read and really explains how Purdue pharma (owned by the Sackler family that gave us the Gallery on the Mall) started marketing to doctors all the while glossing over the dependency issues with Percacet & their other meds.

[Anonymous]

More on the issues at Yorktown. It also sounds like they're equivocating on whether there will be in-school consequences for the Powder Puff participants.

http://www.arlingtonconnection.com/news/2017/oct/24/yorktown-high-school-takes-steps-against-substance/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One idea: The students should write up - anonymously or not (whichever they prefer) what is really going on in with drugs. It would be very interesting to hear from the students' perspective. In fact, we NEED to include the students in on these discussions.


http://bluevirginia.us/2017/05/yorktown-hs-graduating-senior-graham-weinschenk-students-smoke-pot-use-xanax-adderall

Yorktown HS: “Why do students smoke pot or use xanax or adderall?”

Editor’s update: In chatting with Graham, he adds that this problem is NOT specific to Arlington, but that he’s “had friends from Young Dems all over the country text me and tell me how much they agree with the post.”

*****************

As some of you may have heard, APS and ACPD will begin patrolling the high schools with drug-sniffing dogs. This is in response to the increased use of drugs (particularly xanax and adderall) and alcohol among the APS student body, and APS claims that these sweeps are necessary in order to address and correct the increase of drug use.

In my opinion, I don’t think law enforcement and education should be mixed at all except for the direct protection of the school. But setting that point aside for the moment, let’s talk about what APS wants to do and whether it will be effective. Short answer: No, it won’t be effective. ACPD will catch one idiot kid who brought some pot to school. They aren’t going to correct the drug problem with after school locker searches. Now, before all the parents go “Yay!!! This kid is advocating for searches during school!!!”, I’m not, and let me continue.

If APS *REALLY* wants to correct the drug problem, they need to go to the source. Why do students smoke pot or use xanax or adderall? I’ll give you a hint: it isn’t because they think that drugs have positive benefits, and it isn’t because they’re being peer-pressured into it (for the most part).

It’s because attending an Arlington high school is so. Freaking. Stressful. APS shoves AP courses on students like they’re nothing. The course load and work load for students is absolutely absurd. The load is so much that kids turn to drugs because they can’t possibly de-stress otherwise. School is still in the back of their minds with every other activity.

To be clear, I 100% do *NOT* condone drug use to deal with stress. Drugs are not an appropriate coping method, but my point is that the stress level shouldn’t be so high that kids feel that they HAVE to turn to drugs. So, if APS really wants to tackle the drug problem, they need to tackle student stress. De-stress students and the drug use will decrease. Just my theory….

Im not a student, but an adult who currently uses adderall and xanax. Ill tell you why kids use these drugs: bc they friggin work. Adderal improves cognative performance by orders of magnitude. In a couple decades, it will be the case that if you are not using it, you are at a severe disavantage. And Xanax is helpful from time to time to sleep or when anxiety hits. Be glad its not opiods.

I can tell you that we are there now. Parents are doping their kids to improve grades NOW in white high income suburbia. "ADHD" is a epidemic, almost everyone in competive schools has come down with it. Doping kids for grades is drug abuse. If parents teach kids that it's OK to abuse ADHD drugs, how can they tell them not to abuse pot and opiods? It's a slippery slope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More on the issues at Yorktown. It also sounds like they're equivocating on whether there will be in-school consequences for the Powder Puff participants.

http://www.arlingtonconnection.com/news/2017/oct/24/yorktown-high-school-takes-steps-against-substance/

Holy crap! That’s an eye-opener and really points to YHS as having a unique problem compared to the other APS HS. Getting high during class either Jules—jeezus!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More on the issues at Yorktown. It also sounds like they're equivocating on whether there will be in-school consequences for the Powder Puff participants.

http://www.arlingtonconnection.com/news/2017/oct/24/yorktown-high-school-takes-steps-against-substance/

Makes sense as it wasn't on school grounds. Haha seriously? Must be the Arlington way, getting drunk at the elementary school and no in-school consequences. Make the Powder Puff players an example that Arlington takes drugs very seriously.

[Anonymous]

May have not happened on YHS property but it sure as hell happened on APS property. I think consequences should be meted out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:May have not happened on YHS property but it sure as hell happened on APS property. I think consequences should be meted out.

Me too. 100 percent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More on the issues at Yorktown. It also sounds like they're equivocating on whether there will be in-school consequences for the Powder Puff participants.

http://www.arlingtonconnection.com/news/2017/oct/24/yorktown-high-school-takes-steps-against-substance/

Holy crap! That’s an eye-opener and really points to YHS as having a unique problem compared to the other APS HS. Getting high during class either Jules—jeezus!

We feel like we dodged a bullet by avoiding the YHS district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More on the issues at Yorktown. It also sounds like they're equivocating on whether there will be in-school consequences for the Powder Puff participants.

http://www.arlingtonconnection.com/news/2017/oct/24/yorktown-high-school-takes-steps-against-substance/

Makes sense as it wasn't on school grounds. Haha seriously? Must be the Arlington way, getting drunk at the elementary school and no in-school consequences. Make the Powder Puff players an example that Arlington takes drugs very seriously.

I guess you failed to click on the link above. YHS has much bigger problems when their students are getting high in school IN THE CLASSROOM while teachers are instructing!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More on the issues at Yorktown. It also sounds like they're equivocating on whether there will be in-school consequences for the Powder Puff participants.

http://www.arlingtonconnection.com/news/2017/oct/24/yorktown-high-school-takes-steps-against-substance/

Makes sense as it wasn't on school grounds. Haha seriously? Must be the Arlington way, getting drunk at the elementary school and no in-school consequences. Make the Powder Puff players an example that Arlington takes drugs very seriously.

I guess you failed to click on the link above. YHS has much bigger problems when their students are getting high in school IN THE CLASSROOM while teachers are instructing!!!

A student once told me he heard a kid shot himself up with heroine in the middle of class. Pulled off his shoe, put his foot on the desk and injected right between his toes. Teacher kept going with the lecture and didn't say anything.

A student said it, so it must be true!