May 25, 2017 4 min read

Young people’s voices matter. With the generous support of the Washington County Community Foundation, I’ve facilitated three focus groups on the heroin epidemic since November. One group consisted of 23 middle school students (sixth to eighth grades), another group contained 17 high school students (ninth through 12th grades) and the third group was made up of 27 of our peer educators.

Their words are a call to action for adults.

• I don’t know anyone who uses heroin, but my dad’s friend died of an overdose. I didn’t to go the funeral. No one talked with me about it. I heard my mom crying. My dad’s friend was 32, I think. That seems like a young age to die. (Middle school student)

• Why aren’t there more education programs about heroin use? Why are most adults acting like we don’t know what’s happening? We always know what’s happening, whether it’s a pending divorce, or a cancer diagnosis, or lack of money. We hear. We listen. We observe. I wish people would listen to us and include us in discussions. I’m grateful you listen, Mary Jo. (Peer educator)

• Every single one of my friends knows someone who has overdosed. So do I. (High school student)

• I don’t know how I feel about Narcan. I wonder if a person might think, “If I overdose, someone can save my life with Narcan.” Or, maybe not. Maybe when someone is addicted, that person isn’t thinking straight. (Middle school student)

• The best education is peer education. You always say our voices count, and we teach other teens better than anyone else. You are correct. I was part of the Peer Leadership program in my school. Your husband ran it. We taught other teens about drugs and alcohol. We worked on scenarios that were real to us. Then funding was cut. We didn’t get to do it this year. If this is an epidemic, why wouldn’t money be spent on peer education? It works! (Peer educator)

• What we learn in health class isn’t enough. It’s not effective. It’s just boring and preachy. It’s not real. (High school student)

• Sometimes I’m afraid when my stepmom uses. I’ve never seen her actually take heroin, but I can tell when she’s high. Is that what you call it when someone acts all weird after using it? (Middle school student)

• I don’t think any of our group would use heroin, but we’re very educated. We understand the effects of addiction. I also believe that no one plans to become addicted. I think our society is too punitive with our reaction to heroin use. We should focus on rehab and treat addiction as a social problem instead of a legal one. A few countries, like Portugal, address addiction that way and they have better success rates than we do. (Peer educator)

• When adults lump marijuana use with heroin use, it’s frustrating. Any teen knows the difference between weed and hard drugs like heroin. (High school student)

• I don’t know how to stop the heroin epidemic. I’m just a kid. I wish someone would stop it, though. My dad knows a person who overdosed. This is very frightening to me. (Middle school student)

• I think we need to understand why people use heroin. There’s always a cause and effect for behavior. Until we educate young people and examine the social phenomena of addiction, nothing will change. (Peer educator)

• I know a few teens who think trying heroin is OK because you won’t get addicted. I learned different when your teens taught at my school, and I’ll never try it, not even once. Do I know teens who have access to heroin? Sure. If a teen wants any drug, it’s out there. (High school student).

After our focus group, one of our peer educators brought me an article from Teen Vogue. http://www.teenvogue.com/story/teen-heroin. I’m impressed with the depth of topics this periodical covers, and it is read by many young people. I’m also impressed with our peer educators.

Have a question? Send it to Dr. Mary Jo Podgurski’s email podmj@healthyteens.com.