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Tall Cop: The Normalization of Alcohol & Marijuana
KEEPING KIDS SAFE ONLINE
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Welcome to the Next Talk podcast. We are a nonprofit passionate about keeping kids safe online. We're learning together how to navigate tech, culture and faith with our kids. We have TalkHop back with us today, Jermaine Galloway. Jermaine, thank you for being here.
Speaker 2:Thank you guys for having me back. It's a good thing when they bring you back.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You've become a great resource for our parents. Tell everyone, if they have not listened to your previous shows, who you are. What's your background.
Speaker 2:So they know me as Jermaine Galloway. Well, they know me as Tall Cops at Stop. But Jermaine Galloway, I was in law enforcement for 18 years. Once I left law enforcement, because I do so many trainings, I travel and train across the country as a national speaker on specifically on drug trends. That's my expertise. Everything associated with drugs, alcohol, which obviously is a drug too, at any possible angle or direction. That's what I, that's what I train on.
Speaker 1:Such needed in today's world. Okay, today I want to focus on alcohol and marijuana and how that's been so normalized in the world. Can you, can you speak into that? And I love how you, how you put in there alcohol as a drug too, because I don't think a lot of people think that.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, because a lot of people are social drinkers, some people are heavy drinkers, some people are addicted to alcohol. But alcohol is a drug. It is a mind altering substance. It is addictive. I mean, I drink alcohol so I'm not sitting here, you know, throwing rocks at people who do, but I drank alcohol.
Speaker 2:But with that in mind, people do need to understand that. You know, some of us who drink socially. There's others who don't drink socially. There's others. It is their drug of choice. Marijuana's not their drug of choice. Heroin's not their drug of choice. It is alcohol. It's what they crave daily. It's what they do behind the wheel of a car, it's what they do at their child's basketball game, all of it. So we, we have alcohol issues in this country. It is your mostly widely abused drug. Um, you know, sometimes people say, well, it's vaping or meth or heroin. No, none of those numbers are even close to alcohol. More people use alcohol than any of those drugs. And you could probably start combining some of those and get equal numbers to alcohol. So when you talk alcohol, it is your. Some people call it an entourage drug or some people will call it the ketchup of the drug world. It goes with everything and there's a way to use that responsibly, and there's some people who don't use it responsibly and then, of course, when you talk kids, it really significantly impacts them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's talk about that for a minute, because as adults it has been normalized and kind of like very acceptable and we don't talk about perimeters to keep ourselves healthy as adults. But that has now, I think, trickled down to kids, where they just think alcohol is not a big deal at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's because anything that's normalized we'll start with this anything that is normalized that you see every day, you don't think is a big deal. So you know, unfortunately back in the day in communities we would see people who were nodding out from, let's say, heroin. They had just shot up heroin. They're standing on the sidewalk. You know, you hear the news media make the reference to zombies. I don't really like that term, but the news media makes that reference to zombies on the sidewalk or people standing up, falling asleep. And back in the day we used to dial 911 when we saw that there used to be a quick police and EMS response. Now most people guess what they do Keep driving, they keep walking by, they walk in their Starbucks. They don't even dial 911. Why is that? Because it's become kind of normalized.
Speaker 2:You go to a larger city, you see that on the daily and anything good or bad that you see on the daily becomes normalized and people don't really respond to it after a while anymore. So what's happening with alcohol is many kids see their parents drinking, their aunts and uncles drinking, every social event drinking. A mom has it, you know, in the Arctic mug, in the center console and kids go. Well, what's the big deal? And furthermore, you have some parents who provide alcohol to their kids too. And in some cases, those same parents can't understand why their kids are fighting depression and going around and around with depression and going around and around with suicidal thoughts and going around and around with anxiety, but yet they allow them to drink and you sit back and you go. You do realize alcohol is a depressant. Right, you're fighting depression and depressants and that's not a good thing. But some parents don't make that correlation either.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think many of us miss that. Can you dive into that a little bit more about the association between alcohol being a depressant and causing depression and mental health issues with kids and with adults?
Speaker 2:Sure, look at it like this. Let's start out with this first All drugs make you feel good. It doesn't matter what the drug is. Some people will say, well, this drug has a medicinal value. I could make an argument for a medicinal value of every drug, from cocaine to meth to heroin. You can make an argument of a medicinal value to it. That medicinal value might be 10%, it might be 30%, but you can make an argument to that. And then also, all drugs feel good.
Speaker 2:So when people are going through a tough day, tough series of events, breaking up with the spouse whether that's high school spouse, whether that is, you know, married 30 year spouse, tough time at the job, stress during high school sports, whatever it is you're doing, drugs are going to make you feel better. The problem with that is not the temporary relief, the long-term lack of relief and the long-term dependence and the issues that tie into that, and that's the bigger piece of this. So, in other words, you are a student, you're suffering from depression, you don't feel good, you drank alcohol. Yes, you will feel better in the interim. You will feel better for the next two hours because, guess what, you're going to veg out. You're not going to feel all these things, your limbs are going to feel heavy, you're going to feel like you're nodding off going to sleep. The question is, how do you feel four hours later? How do you feel that night? How do you feel the next morning? How do you feel the next three days? And that is where the issue.
Speaker 2:So then what happens? You've taught yourself yourself that, well, the only way I feel good is drink alcohol. So you go back and drink more alcohol and then you just continue the cycle to where now you become dependent on it. Now you're dependent on it, and now, even when you were having a good day, it ain't so good because you need that alcohol fix to keep it a good day. And now you're getting into the world of addiction. So what's happening is you have individuals that look at these drugs and just say what's the big deal? But they're actually going down the highway of addiction and not even realizing it. Because I don't think most people want to be addicts. I'm actually very, very confident that most people do not want to be addicts, that even people who are addicted to name the drug of choice from heroin and alcohol do not want to be an addict. I don't think that they started using saying. I want to end up here. I I don't think that they started using saying.
Speaker 1:I want to end up here. I think they ended up there because of their using man. That's such a word right there about the coping mechanism that we use that it makes us feel good for the next two hours, and then how do we feel the next day? And also what we're teaching ourselves to cope how to cope with problems, how to look problems in the face and deal with it.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and one of the mistakes we can make as parents is always running the substances for things to feel better. So you know your child can't sleep. We're going straight to melatonin and I'm not sitting here saying there's not a medicinal value to all this stuff. I'm not saying that. What I am talking about is some of the issues that I see and some of the issues that we're having right. So we run to melatonin, we run to ibuprofen, we run to everything instead of going. Well, could you have a massive headache because you were out in Texas heat and you drank six soda pops today and ate cake and that was your diet today. Could that be a reason that you have a really bad headache? So maybe we need to adjust your diet. I'm not saying 14 year old, don't drink a couple of sodas, you're 14. I get it, but maybe don't drink six of them and sit playing video games and sit outside in Texas heat and then eat junk food all day. Maybe we should look at adjusting some other things first before we run to medicine.
Speaker 2:One of the things I explain to people is you know, we have a lot of kids on ADHD meds and other meds, right. But then I look at the parents and the parents say, well, you know they won't listen to me, I go. Well, what do they do during the day? Are they in sports? No Activities, no. What about after school stuff? No, playing with friends no. What do they do? They play video games all day. So wait, you're telling me that your child is struggling with ADHD, but your child doesn't eat well, doesn't sleep well, plays video games all day.
Speaker 2:Maybe if we make some lifestyle changes, would that maybe impact some of that. So I mean, I'm not saying that that child doesn't need ADHD meds also, but maybe let's start with the lifestyle changes first, or adjustments, because kids are kids, right, kids are going to play video games. I get that stuff, but make some lifestyle adjustments first and then go to that. And I think sometimes we are just so quick that something goes wrong medicine, something goes wrong medicine, something goes wrong medicine, something goes wrong medicine. Believe me, everyone who listens to this, including myself, takes medicines. I am not anti-medicine, I'm not anti-Western medicine, I'm not anti any of that.
Speaker 1:All I believe is we should maybe be looking at some other options first. For some individuals, I mean, it boils down to we want a quick fix and we want a bandaid, but we don't want to have to do any hard work or adjustments.
Speaker 2:Correct, a hundred percent. A hundred percent. We don't want to do the work that we call parenting sometimes, so we don't want to do the parenting stuff, which is discipline, follow up, paying attention. It's easier to go here, go to your room, play video games all day, stay out of my hair because I got to work and then when you come back, well, okay, take a medicine for this. You can't sleep, not because you've been up for three straight days playing video games, you can't sleep because you've been up for three straight days playing video games. So here's your melatonin at four o'clock for all. So the numbers I'm seeing, absolutely not. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think we have a lot more people on medications that don't need it. For sure, the numbers are skyrocketing. Okay, so we talked we're talking a lot about alcohol. I want to talk about marijuana and the and the um normalization of that, because that is another thing, especially with teenagers, like it's no big deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and well and think about this. On this one I don't totally blame the teens. I actually blame the adults, because when we legalize a drug, guess what? The 17 year old can't vote. The 16 year old can't vote. So we're sitting back going hang on, let's legalize it, Make it more available, have dispensaries where we just have Daryl and Daryl who are running it, selling to anybody that don't even have good checking, ID, standards or anything. They're selling a drug that we still the forms of cannabis we see today we don't completely know everything about.
Speaker 2:But then we're going to look at the teens and go y'all are a problem. It doesn't work like that. You know I'm surprised the teens don't look at us and go I didn't vote this in. You did so understanding. You know half the states in the country where we've legalized weed. But then we turn around and tell the teens don't use it. Their first question to us as adults should be well, why do you legalize it? Then, If we're not? So many arguments they could throw right back at us with that, and some in some cases they are, for the decisions that we are making they're not making, them we're making. So ultimately, what's happened to normalization is we as adults are putting cannabis more on our streets. We're making it more available to our teens. And guess what? Lo and behold, our teens are using it. Surprise, surprise. Who would have ever thought?
Speaker 1:So what are the dangers of using it? If we start having this conversation with our teenagers and they are like, well, it's legal. And we say, well, it probably shouldn't be because of this, this and this. What are those reasons?
Speaker 2:Let's start. Yeah, let's start out with this. There are negative side effects to every drug. If anyone tells you that this drug is perfectly safe, including a doctor, no drug is perfectly safe. And doctors that and I think many times because I'll hear from you know attendees, class attendees who say dr tolm is perfectly safe and they got addicted to it. And I think sometimes the doctors are just looking like this is safe compared to the other stuff you might be doing. Right, that's kind of the way. I don't know, but that's just what I get a feel doctors know. So many drugs are probably looking at this going man. Compared to everything else out there, this is is pretty safe, but no drug. That's what we have to start with. You want cannabis? You want alcohol? No drug is safe for the masses. No drug is completely safe. Every drug has side effects. That is our baseline people. That's where we start, with that in mind.
Speaker 2:Well, marijuana, cannabis has a long history of being tied to early onset of schizophrenia, increased schizophrenia, depression, cannabis induced psychosis, I mean. And what the scary part is are those are linked to cannabis with leaf and low THC. We're not even talking the concentrated form. That's five times stronger today. So, in other words, we have negative side effects associated with less, say, a Blackberry phone, but everyone's using smartphones today. But our data goes all the way back to the basic phone. So the flip phone really would be a better equivalent, or those old brick phones that would be the better equivalent, but everyone's using smartphones today.
Speaker 2:So what do you think the data the 20-year data is going to say? When cannabis is, however many times more potent and coming in a tar form and people are vaping it? What do you think the data is going to say when cannabis is, however many times more potent and coming in a tar form and people are vaping it? What do you think the data is going to say when that comes out? And one of the things I tell my classes is I think the data is already coming out. I think we're already seeing it. So we don't have the numbers to back all of it, but I think we're already seeing it.
Speaker 1:Well, I think too. You can just see if you try to get anyone into an addiction facility or rehab. It's almost impossible to get people the help they need.
Speaker 2:They're full. How about that? Huh? So when we make drugs more available, more people get addicted. But then those people need help and they look at me and go why was it so easy for me to get addicted and so hard for me to find help?
Speaker 2:One of the top things kids are in treatment for now this might change a little bit is cannabis. Now, when I say it might change a little bit, is cannabis Now when I say it might change a little bit is vaping. Vaping those numbers are going to exceed anything we've ever, ever, ever seen with drug use in kids because of how young they're starting and the high level of addiction of vapes. So vaping is going to shift that a little bit. But when you talk a harder quote, unquote drug, it's going to be your cannabis products and that's not ever going to slow down. Because, if anything, I'm not seeing any states going. We're making sanctions harder. I'm seeing states loosen sanctions, which means or loosen policy or loosen laws, which means more people are going to do it. And let me finish on this note. Here's what I mean by that Whenever you make a drug, these are two key points that I tell all my classes you have to always remember, never forget Whenever you make a drug more available, it lowers the price.
Speaker 2:When you lower the price, you price kids into the market. An example I give people is why is cocaine not popular with students? Why is cocaine not popular in high schools? Are you telling me plenty of high school kids would not want to use cocaine? I disagree. I think some would want to use cocaine. Why don't they then? It's not easy to get as easy to get and it's not cheap, it's expensive. Those are your two reasons you don't see cocaine in high schools. You change those dynamics. You lower the prices and you open cocaine dispensaries in Missouri, texas, new Jersey. You're going to see cocaine immediately in your school system.
Speaker 2:So people need to understand that there's main factors that play into all this. Because one of the things I'll ask parents is I'll say parents, I want you to rattle off in your head the drugs that you believe are popular or that your kids tell you are popular in your community, and then I give them about 30 seconds. Then I say are any of those drugs you just rattled off in your head hard to find or any of them expensive? Because you know that the parents just thought in their head cannabis, vapes, alcohol, pills, maybe mushrooms, stuff like that, and I say, are any of those hard to find and are any of those expensive? And they shake their head no, and I go. That's why they're popular with your kids. It's simple concepts. It truly is. We don't have to, you know, break down the science with this. It is simple concepts of why certain drugs end up in kids' hands.
Speaker 1:Laws have consequences and it does become normalized in a society.
Speaker 2:Absolutely it does, and we are living that right now. And if you think that normalization doesn't matter, then sit back and ask yourself why are the depression rates up? Why are suicide numbers so high? Why are all these things going on? Then Because you know, some people will say, well, I think we should legalize drugs because less people will use it. And I kind of I tell them we're in a 10 year case study already. Guys, you realize the first state to legalize was about 11 years ago.
Speaker 2:And name a state that all of a sudden has made you know the quote unquote drug war sanctions harder or stronger. Name a state that says we're sending more people to prison for drugs. Name a state that says we're arresting more people. Name the state or city that's doing that. No one's doing that. We're loosening everything across the board. How does addiction look to you on your streets right now? Look like it's getting better out there. We're loosening everything. So when people sit back and say, well, I think we could do this, I and say, well, I think we could do this, I said we're already doing it, we are already doing it. And does it look better to you out there? It does not. No one thinks the drug world looks better. Not one person does so. Understand that. I'm not saying we should be throwing people in prison, because I know that does not work either, but just loosening sanctions. Lack of policy, lack of laws that clearly doesn't work either.
Speaker 1:Well, and like you said, I mean once that has been loosened, and then it's just so readily available for kids, it trickles down and then we get irritated at our teens for it, and it is literally not their fault. It is everything that has been modeled by the adults and what we've allowed.
Speaker 2:It is. I mean, guys, we're seeing vaping in second grade now. We never saw drug use in second grade. We never saw drug use in third grade. We never saw drug use in fourth grade. We maybe saw a little bit of alcohol in fifth and sixth, and I mean a little bit, but we never saw drug use at those age ranges. Why are we seeing vaping in second grade? Because a vape pen costs four bucks to 50, but it costs four bucks. It tastes like strawberries and it's sold in every store, on every block. Okay, that well, you know what I mean Every corner store. That's why you are seeing it. If they, if a vape pen started at let's say, we taxed them and they started at $50, you're not seeing a second grader with a $50 device. You're not seeing kids bringing up to school anymore. You know why. They don't want a $50 device to get taken by the teacher. They're going to leave that thing at home. So understand, there's some simple things we could be doing that we're not even doing that. If anything, we're going the other way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I liked what you said too Earlier in the podcast. You said and we've got Daryl and Daryl running these shops and they're not carting or caring, they're not following the law to make sure kids aren't getting these products, they just want to make money. They're in a business, they want customers.
Speaker 2:For profit and public health do not equal. You're going to get one or the other, you're not going to get both. So if you're for profit, that's never good for public health. If you're good for public health, it probably is not super good for for profit. They do not meet. So you're going to have to pick one or the other. And vapes are clearly terrible for public health but they're for profit. So that and you know, we tend to not close industries, we tend to not ban entire industries, we tend to kind of try to regulate them or adjust them, but we tend to not ban them. So I'm not seeing the vape world getting banned. I do predict, uh, us doing something with flavored vapes. I do see that coming at some point, because I don't believe our vape issues are going to adjust until we do so. I do believe that coming at some point, because I don't believe our vape issues are going to adjust until we do so. I do believe that coming, but we're not there yet.
Speaker 1:Well, and I'm I'm glad that you also mentioned, you know, the, the younger ages that you're seeing. Same thing exact is happening with us over here at Next Talk with you know nude photos, the more normal it becomes. I used to. When I first started it was a middle school and high school issue. Now I got elementary kids doing it because it's become so normalized and they're desensitized to seeing naked people on a screen. You know, and it's the same concept with this normalization of alcohol and marijuana.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're seeing all of it on TV and there's actually overlapping on that too. Sex, drugs and alcohol right, we remember growing up sex, drugs and rock and roll. I think we take away the rock and roll piece now, but sex, drugs and alcohol all those things travel together. You know, if you look right now, what are they using to sell alcohol? Sex. And it's not just females, males and females, it's both. I mean, they're using sex to sell that. So it is a main topic. And again our kids are seeing it, because before, where our parents could have hid some of that from us, now we all have smartphones and social media, so the hiding it from kids does not exist anymore. They are seeing everything. But again we are the adults, which means my, you know, 12 year old doesn't make policy, I make policy, which means if that policy is out there, it's not because they made it, it's because we made it and we're making bad policy. Then we're upset with the end result, with our children and the impact on their brains.
Speaker 1:Well, we're not fighting and standing up and being an advocate from the worldly perspective and we're not being a model at home, like you said. We're running to drugs for everything, to fix everything, even like legal medicines. We're just running to that for a bandaid fix.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we, and we do need to stand up and, just like you said, we do need to stand up and say some people ask me, what can you do? I go. You need to stand up and say something because guess what? The good part is, these guys are all for profit. So if someone's for profit and you say I'm not buying that product from you anymore, they will adjust their tactics because they're for profit. So the good part about anyone who's for profit is they're very predictable about what they're doing and how they do it and they're predictable about what they'll listen to. So you know, if you live in an area with a million people and you're one of two people to go say something complain they're going to say get out of my store, I don't care. If you live in an area of a million people and it's on the news and 30,000 people complain, they're going to adjust their tactics because that's a lot of money to lose and they don't want to lose that, especially when there's other competition.
Speaker 2:But we're not really saying anything. You know the old term like. It's almost like being an old. You know sport coach it is. You know boys will be. Boys is not, is what it is so we can't say that anymore.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and and you've kind of painted a picture here of how normalized it is and and why it's dangerous. What can we do? Like what can we do? I know we got to be a model. I know we got to speak up when we can. What are some practical things, practical conversations we can have with our children about these issues.
Speaker 2:Well, first, what can we do is be a policy. You know, reach out to your policymakers. And I'm not saying about a ban. I think people are pretty resistant to bans. Most people are pretty pro. You know, economy, business. So I think if you start with a ban, that might be a little counterproductive. But altering where you sell, age of sell, flavor of sell things like that. Also, having frequent conversations with your kids, not a conversation once every six months, but frequent conversations, ongoing conversations with your kids. That's another part of it Also. You got to do that. You got to have the frequent, constant conversations with your kids.
Speaker 1:What if you're a parent and you're struggling with alcohol or you're struggling with marijuana? Use be honest with your kid. Talk to them about it Like what do you suggest?
Speaker 2:Well, guess what Number one your child already knows you are, even though you think you're hiding it from guys, they're not stupid. Those kids are smarter than us half the time. So I do not underestimate our children at all. I give them actually high levels of credit for their level of intelligence, even they don't always show it, but we don't either, right? So have those conversations still about why they don't want to be where you are and how you got there and why it doesn't make you happy how dependent you are on these things. Cause, yeah, there are parents who are addicts. There are parents who are addicted to substances and you, as that parent, should know even better than anyone else of why they shouldn't be using it. You should be the advocate of why they shouldn't be, because you know what it's causing for you and your life.
Speaker 1:Well, I know for me, you know, addiction one runs in my family and there are there are family members who have struggled with it, and that I have not shied away from talking about that with my kids and not shielding them from that, and I think that's been a good conversation starter. But but the things that you've laid out here too, I think, are also great ways to talk to your kids about this. Like parents, I am going to suggest to you, once you listen to this podcast, let your teen listen to this podcast and talk to them about what tall cop is saying here, cause I think it's invaluable to create some good dialogue in your home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's it. Listen to this podcast. Talk about it before, talk about it after. This is just a springboard for your conversation. This is not the conversation. This is a springboard for the conversation, and use it as that.
Speaker 1:Okay, I have a couple more questions for you. So say you're a parent out there and you found out your kid is drinking. You know marijuana use. You're finding that there's something going on that they're sneaking. What should we do?
Speaker 2:So some parents say should I call police? Should I do this? Should I do that? You need to, as a parent, address it. Do not look at it as small. The earlier we can address the issue, the better we can be. The sooner we can address the issue, the better we can be. Look at it as serious. Look at treatment options. I know financially everybody can't do that. I get there's some logistical stuff. But look at all your options and look at them right at the beginning. Get on it right at the beginning and get on it swiftly.
Speaker 2:And if there's punishment or sanctions taking away phone, taking away car, taking away privileges do it early and then you can. You can kind of release those sanctions later. But don't just wait and say no big deal, kids will be kids, boys will be boys way and say no big deal, kids will be kids, boys will be boys, girls will be girls. And then let the issues get much larger, because it's a lot harder to bring in some issues when they're really big. And I'll tell you this people suffering from addiction, in the time they're going through withdrawals, they do not care about sanctions. They do not care about consequences Later. They do, but not during that moment, and so you don't want to get to that moment.
Speaker 1:They do but not during that moment, and so you don't want to get to that moment. So oftentimes, you know, when we try to take a stand and say you know this is not okay. I found this, I'm worried about you, they will minimize it and blow it up. Everybody's doing it, everybody does this. How do we know when to really kind of have an intervention where we're like we're getting your, you help, this is far bigger than you Like. How do we know that line?
Speaker 2:I know every kid is different, but that was the first thing I was going to say. Every kid is different. The line is going to be different for different kids. But change in behavior just give you an idea. Change in behavior or where behavior um acts, friends, instances, lack of instances, lack of one to play sports, lack of one to have certain friends are based on substances. So when your kid's behavior is based on the video game, like, you'll have parents who say I took the video game away and you know he punched his dad, he threw things.
Speaker 2:Well, that, right there, that's called addiction. Right, there's video game addiction. Or sex addiction, there's drug addiction. That's called addiction. You are well past the point that that should be happening. You know.
Speaker 2:Sure, should a kid get upset, yeah, if you take, you know, my candy bar and Skittles away from me, I'm going to go. I really wanted those right. But then you move on and go, oh well, I'll get some Skittles next week. If you take it away and you're feeling like you need to punch people and act out and do that, that's called addiction, which means that video game should have been taken away a long time ago and you probably need to keep it away for a while until things settle in your house, not a week, not a couple of days, a while because you have someone who's dependent on something. So that's one of the big tools to look at when you know your child stops vaping. There's the initial withdrawals from lack of eating irritability. That's normal, should be expected, because it's withdrawals. But now you're a few weeks in and you're still seeing some weird behaviors. Now you're in the world of addiction and you're going to need to address that.
Speaker 1:Any other tips for parents walking through this on how to get help? Is AA who they should contact? Where do we start addiction recovery in our area? Like what? Because that is another thing that I have found helping parents and trying to get them the help for their kids or themselves is we have a crisis on our hands with the addiction facilities and the addiction treatment for for drug and alcohol.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so starting local, you can, you know, depending on where you live. I'm sure we have some people in here who are from rural America. You can call your local hospitals, your local clinics, anything but just Google, search the city you live in, treatment providers or the county you live in. Look them up, look up the reviews. There's a lot of information out there. There's several, but, like you said, it's hard to get people in some of them. And even for some of the drugs, like if you say it's vaping, they might say we don't deal with that, we're only dealing with this, this and this. We don't have youth counselors, we want to deal with this, this and this. So in some cases you might have to make the drive and you might have to travel a little bit, but that's where you want to start. You ask your school counselor. A lot of times they have connections with those, so you're just going to have to shop around a little bit.
Speaker 1:Well and I think that's the thing that I'm seeing is so difficult because you're in a crisis and your kid is in denial, that they have a problem, but they're acting out just like you said getting physical hitting, walls punching because they're going through withdrawals. You're so worried about them and in the middle of it you have to be logical and find the right treatment center and then look at insurance plans and that's a crisis. That's a major crisis for a family, and so what I immediately go to is we have to do better at prevention so that we never get to that point.
Speaker 2:Right exactly, so that we never get to that point. Right exactly. Prevention, education are the first steps before you get to enforcement. Enforcement's that final step. So, and a lot of people, we don't want that there because that's criminal records and all this other stuff Prevention and education are the first steps. Always remember that. Parents, it's your job to be the parents, no one else's. It's yours to be the parents, no one else's, it's yours.
Speaker 1:And and that's why listen to this podcast start the conversations early with your kids. Make sure that just when you're popping ibuprofen, that is still sending a message to your kid If you're popping that every day for pain.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that's it. And the bigger thing is okay, what's the pain, what's the level of pain? And you know, with some of the these parents, I, okay, what's the pain, what's the level of pain? And you know, with some of the these parents, I tell them I go, you're 40 years old and this is where you're at. Theoretically, you should have another 45 years. You're halfway there. What do you think it's going to look like? Right, you need to address this now. This isn't going to get better. You need to address it now.
Speaker 2:And you know, when you hear people who have a surgery and they go well, I took pain pills for two weeks. Okay, you have a surgery, some of you might need pain pills, you might need opioids, but after surgery you're supposed to be in some level of discomfort. So if it is bearable enough, then don't. Don't take the pills. If you can get around it, then don't. If you need to, okay, I understand there's a need for that, but then you should make that a couple of day instance and start weaning yourself off it. You're supposed to be uncomfortable after a surgery. So after those things, start weaning yourself off of it. If you can bear it, do it. Because when you talk to those who've fallen into the world of addiction. You don't want to end up there. You don't want to end up there, and I know a lot of people end up in addiction. They don't seek it, they end up there.
Speaker 1:Well, and I would also say I would add to that that's such a great example. I remember when my kids had their wisdom teeth cut out and the doctor gave them pain medicine and they said if you need something stronger, we can do it, but we don't want you to have it and that was a whole conversation with my kids as they were recovering from their surgeries is I don't want you to be miserable but at the same time, we don't need to just take stuff to numb ourselves Like if we don't need it. That's not a good move for our health.
Speaker 2:You don't take it just to take it. You take it because you absolutely need it and can't function without it, right? But you know, what I basically just said is also what you see with addiction too. You take it because you need it and can't function without it. So you got to kind of look at that to. You know, double sided sword there, so you got to look at, you got to look at both of them. So you definitely want to pay attention to that.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a good point. That's a good point. Okay, anything else for our listeners? We got a lot of parents listening. Anything else about alcohol and marijuana, the normalization of it and why it's so dangerous?
Speaker 2:I think I covered why it's so dangerous. I'll tell you guys this I put out a lot of resources and I'm always updating. This. Stuff is always changing. This stuff is all of it. I mean, we just talked alcohol and marijuana today, but we could talk about 30 drugs. It's always changing. It's always evolving.
Speaker 2:So pay attention, track with the stuff I put out there. Go to my YouTube page, sign up for that. It's free. So I'm not telling you this to make money, it's free. Go to my website. Tall cop says stop, and then you can sign up for my email list. It'll be a pop-up and then you just put your information in there, hit submit and it'll sign you up for my email list and put in the comment section that you heard me on this podcast. It's kind of cool to know where people come from. I have over 82,000 people on my email blast list. It goes out once a month. One just went out three days ago, so that's the January one. The February one will go out here in a few weeks and those are some of my ways to keep you informed. Of course, facebook, twitter, linkedin X I guess it's called Facebook X, linkedin, but you guys can track with me there and get ahold of me there.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for all the work you're doing out there. I appreciate your wisdom, your experience. Oh my gosh, just you're on the front lines of helping us manage this stuff as more products and new products come on the market for these kids that are being marketed to them.
Speaker 2:You are welcome. You are welcome. Thank you, guys for having me and guys, of course, if you have questions, hit me up.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much, Jermaine.
Speaker 2:Thank you have a good one.
Speaker 3:Next me up. Thanks so much, jermaine. Thank you have a good one. Next Talk is a 501c3 nonprofit keeping kids safe online. To support our work, make a donation at nexttalkorg. Next Talk resources are not intended to replace the advice of a trained healthcare or legal professional, or to diagnose, treat or otherwise render expert advice regarding any type of medical, psychological, legal, financial or other problem. You are advised to consult a qualified expert for your personal treatment plan.