Fredericksburg Parent

16 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • June 2022 Rising Teen Overdoses Are an Important Warning Sign for Parents Ask the Expert a sk t h e e x p e rt INTERVIEWED BY EMILY FREEHLING Rappahannock Area Community Services Board wants parents to understand the risks faced by today's teens In early May, the Prince William County Police Department issued an urgent warning to parents. "We implore parents and guardians to take immediate action to actively engage with their children and loved ones as soon as possible about the dangers of drug use and encourage constructive dialogue to prevent further deaths and illness," stated a "community awareness message" released by the department. This message came after the deaths of two boys in the coun- ty—ages 14 and 15—were linked to counterfeit forms of the drug Percocet that testing revealed were laced with fentanyl. "Fentanyl is known to be extremely fatal, even in the small- est doses if the effects of an overdose are not recognized and treated immediately," the department warned in its mes- sage to the community. Drug overdose deaths among adolescents are a growing problem, and one that parents should be vigilant about. JAMA published a national study in April showing that fatal overdose deaths among adolescents nearly doubled from 492 in 2019 to 954 in 2020. Because overall drug use rates among American youth remained stable during this time period, researchers concluded that the illicit drug supply has become far more dangerous than it was a decade ago, with additions like illicit fentanyls and other synthetics greatly increasing the risk that experimentation could lead to death. DRUG USE AND MENTAL HEALTH Adding to this crisis is the fact that teen mental health is suffering. Data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this spring indicate that in 2021, 37% of high school students reported experiencing poor men- tal health during the pandemic, and 44% reported that they had persistently felt sad or hopeless over the past year. Dr. Sunny Shin is an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Social Work whose research focuses on childhood traumatic experi- ences and addiction. He developed the Rise Above curriculum, a social-emotion- al learning and substance use prevention program for grades 4 through 12. Shin said psychological well-being has traditionally been one of the biggest predictors of teen substance abuse. "We call it the self-medication hypothesis, where they use nicotine, alcohol, can- nabinoids and other chemicals to treat their own symptoms of anxiety, depres- sion, lack of sleep," or other problems, he said. Academic pressure and peer pressure also come into play. But the presence of chemicals such as fentanyl in drugs that teens have access to means that experi- mentation or giving in to peer pressure on a whim can come with a lethal cost. "We see more and more lethal chemicals out there, and unfortunately it's very easy to buy those without even knowing it," Shin said. Even when teens get substances from within their own homes, such as abusing prescription or over-the-counter medications, marijuana, or purchasing some of the readily available vaping products on the market, Shin notes that it's impor- tant for parents to keep in mind that teenage brains are still growing, and that these chemicals affect kids differently than they do adults. That can be a difficult message to get across to teens in an environment that is sending them a constantly evolving message about the societal acceptance of certain substances.

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