SUD Is “A preventable, Treatable Disease With Roots in Adolescence”
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Like many parts of the country, New York City is experiencing a rapid rise in marijuana use, especially among adolescents and young people. As with alcohol, legal pot can be both addictive and harmful. This is one of the concerns raised by Creighton Drury in this recent TV news interview. But his deeper concern, he says, in “providing parents with the facts” about SUD and their children. In just seven minutes, he provides quite a lot of them.
Creighton Drury comes to this interview with facts at his fingertips. Nine in ten adult SUD sufferers began using before they were 18, when their brains were still developing. Fentanyl, found in most street drugs today, is 100 times more powerful than morphine. Over 140,000 people in the U.S. die each year from alcohol-related causes.
His mission is not one of fear, however. With a smile and a general air of optimism, Drury insists that parents can have a tremendous positive effect on the substance-use decisions of their children. Many factors determine the course of this “complex disease of the mind” we call SUD, he says. Family history of drug use is one, but another is early use. And no actors in society are better equipped to limit that use than parents.
The aim of the organization he leads, the Partnership to End Addiction, is to connect parents (and others) with “an array of credible, reliable, research-based” tools and resources to help with these efforts. If you’re not sure where to start, you can talk (también en español) with a trained outreach specialist on their free chatline (888-378-4373). But don’t skip this brief interview. Drury’s in the news for good reason.
