At Allen High School, students struggling with ubstance absue have many resources to help them overcome this.
“Frequent absences from school, [a] drop in grades, isolation, increased agitation or frustration, [and] a shift in friendships are all typical indicators [of drug use],” Support Counselor Jennifer Atencio said.
Reasons and motivations for students to turn to drugs can vary from person to person.
“Students will often turn to drugs and alcohol as a way to cope with a variety of stressors,” Atencio said. “Sometimes it is based on alleviating or avoiding the feelings from trauma or the stress that a student is experiencing.”
These traumas and stresses can be triggered by a number of factors, such as family life, relationship issues, and academic stress. Some students may even use drugs in an attempt to manage their mental health.
“I have struggled with mental health issues and anxiety for a long time since I was little,” Student A, a student and former drug user who wished to remain anonymous, said. ”[Drugs] just mellowed me out, I would say I used it as an [escape].”
Friends around these teen drug users would often voice these concerns, but usually, they led to little to no action if the user is not convinced or moved.
“I had multiple people who tried to stop me or tell me that [what I was doing] wasn’t okay. Student A said. “But I never listened to them. I think in my head I thought ‘They don’t get it’ or ‘They don’t understand’.”
No matter the reasons and motivations of these drug users, there are still harsh consequences if and when they are caught.
“Vape devices that have THC would be a state felony [by themselves],” Allen police officer and School Resource Officer Damien Jacobs said. “But when they are found on school grounds, it [becomes] a third degree felony.”
Nicotine vapes are illegal for students under 21 years of age and would result in a mandatory placement at the alternative school, Dillard Special Achievement Center, according to Allen High School’s website. The administrative consequences for other substances would be determined by the type and amount.
Another challenge that arises from substance abuse is the effects it has on developing bodies.
“I noticed a lot of changes in my body when I took drugs,” Student A said. “Smoking messed up my lungs so bad. I couldn’t run as well, and I didn’t feel like going to the gym anymore.”
The effects of these drugs are not even clear to the users when they are constantly being taken. Oftentimes users aren’t even aware of the effects until they can’t do the things they used to anymore. Drugs can affect users emotionally as well, making them more tired and prone to getting angry at loved ones. These changes can take a toll on family relationships.
“I stopped listening to my parents, my sister and they couldn’t trust me anymore,” Student A said. “It still affects a lot of [those] relationship[s] today. “
Drugs can also cause rifts between friendships by influencing the user’s temperaments.
“I lost a lot of friendships,” Student A said. “My parents cut off a lot of my friends and some of them kind of ghosted me for it.”
Drugs have been known for its detrimental effects to academic performance, causing grades to drop and focus to decrease.
“Drugs definitely [brought] my grades down.” Student A said. “I felt myself not retaining the normal information that I would.”
While some consequences can be met either immediately with the use of drugs or after teens have been caught, there are still repercussions that can follow these students long after they have graduated.
“For these teen drug users, imagine applying for a job [in] the next couple of years, and on every job application, you have to say yes to the question ‘Have you ever been arrested?’ “ Jacobs said. “It gets harder [to] look like a winner later down the road because all you’re doing is choosing to take the wrong [path now]”.
There are so many disastrous effects of drug use that are only amplified when the users are teenagers. However, sometimes it is these consequences that allow teenagers to start their journey to becoming clean.
“I ended up going to Dillard, followed by ISS and OSS and many other disciplinary actions,” Student A said “In the end, I got so sick and tired of people worrying about me that I quit. Not immediately, I just slowly kind of leaned off of it.”
Therapy, either in school or outside, can also aid students through this journey.
“I was in therapy and it helped a lot. I found other ways to cope and live my life,” Student A said.
Breaking an addiction can be long and hard, and it takes time to learn how to live without the substance. While students may feel alone in the process, they should remember that addiction is a challenge for many teens across the country, and there is a community there to support them.
“One day, [after I quit], I realized it’s been a week,” Student A said. “Then, one day, I realized it’s been a month. And then, I haven’t felt like I’ve needed it [anymore].”
These teens say that drugs are not worth putting stress on their loved ones and possibly giving up their future. They report feeling the best when they stopped using them.
“[When I quit,] I felt like I had a purpose again,” Student A said. “[I was] finally going back to the gym again and hanging out with more people. Drugs definitely screwed up a lot of things in my life and it made things really messy.”
These teens have different viewpoints on drugs now that they are clean.
“Nobody our age should [use drugs],” Student A said. “Drugs screw with your brain chemistry, and it can honestly make mental health issues and physical health worse over time.”
Students can play a crucial role on campus to prevent such cases from happening to their peers. One way to do this is through positive peer pressure.
“I think a lot of students feel like whatever people want to do is okay if it doesn’t affect [them] directly, but what you permit, you promote.” House 400 Principal Greg Smyder said.
If students allow other peers to do things that are unacceptable or against the law, then they are also promoting those behaviors as if it is okay with them.
“I think that students can be more proactive in putting in tips and telling students they shouldn’t be doing those things to make the campus safer and drug-free,” Smyder said. “I think a lot of kids worry about being called a snitch or a tattle-tail, but what they don’t understand is as a society needs those kinds of people to make sure that we don’t dissolve into utter chaos.”
Students have to hold each other responsible and accountable for their actions. Students who do not want to “snitch” on their friends must understand the severity of their actions, and the potentially lethal consequences if they don’t help them. Students can utilize the Tip 411 system, which is anonymous if they have somebody that they’re worried about.
“[If you’re a bystander,] you are allowing your friend to physically hurt themselves in a way that science hasn’t been able to study the true long-term effects of,” Smyder said.
Teens have to understand that drugs are not a permanent solution. Finding happiness through stability and health is going to be more worth it than drugs are in the long run.
“If you’re somebody or know somebody struggling with drug use, tell somebody,” Smyder said. “[Drug use] is not something you just quit cold turkey. It takes a village to really do that. And you have to embrace that help knowing that it’s not always going to be pretty, but it’s available.”
Help is out there and you do not have to do it by yourself. There is a reason why you are using drugs to cope with something, and finding someone to talk with about your problems is a priority. It can be a scary situation, especially considering the potential consequences, such as parents finding out and administrative action, but those are better than escalating to a long-term chronic issue.
“Talk to your counselors and be completely honest with your situation,” Jacobs said. “Take ownership of it, because it’s hard to break that cycle of addiction.”
Friends are great, but they also may not know how to best handle a situation like this, so it is better to talk to a trusted adult on campus or at home.
“My friends tried to support me, but I also think that since a lot of my friends had been in the exact same place that I was, it was a little bit difficult to find support in friends,” Student A said.
Ultimately, the decision to change and quit rests on the individual themselves. Even with a multitude of support, it’s useless without the desire and acceptance to stick to the journey from the user.
“I think that a lot of overcoming an addiction is based on yourself,” Student A said. “You can be restricted to doing almost nothing, but really it’s yourself that needs to find a change and choose to be different.”
