Posted by Tony Bylsma on March 24, 2010 under Drug Abuse Prevention Education | 
This morning I was in a continuation school’s continuation school.
A continuation school is a place for students who have been found to need special attention to keep up in high school, or middle school and been sent to the “alternative education center”. They aren’t necessarily sent there because of drugs, or behavior problems, but often that is the case.
The school today was for students who were expelled completely from their district’s school system. While a couple of them were booted because of behavior problems, and because of attendance records that were so bad they were just wasting everyone’s time, the largest percentage of these kids were there as a result of substance abuse. Even the usual “last chance” school is a step above this one. I have attended this type of facility so many times that I really have gotten to know the kids and I have to say I really like them.
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Posted by Tony Bylsma on March 18, 2010 under Effective Drug Detox Rehab |
Three basic things must occur for you to get off and stay off drugs. Each one is essential to your successfully staying clean living a drug-free life.
First, if you are blaming yourself for starting to use drugs, for being unable or unwilling to stop using drugs and for relapsing every time you quit, you are both right and wrong.
It is your fault, but it is not a matter of blame.
Blame is a waste of time and energy. If you blame yourself, what does that accomplish? Nothing. It makes you feel like an idiot and, really, you didn’t try to make yourself into an addicted person.
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Posted by Tony Bylsma on March 12, 2010 under Drug Abuse Prevention Education |
Back again, heading for the top, MDMA is rampant in schools and in the playgrounds of Los Angeles.
I have watched this trend for a while now. In the year 2000, it was everywhere in town. It was glorified by youg adults as a safe alternative to meth or cocaine and the party/rave scene was really heating up.
Ecstasy tablets
There was a national push to increase awareness about ecstasy and the numbers fell back to a much lower plateau. I could easily see it in the schools and our rehab counselors were seeing a little drop too. The changes that happen in the street with availability and quality show up at the treatment centers, but not right away. There seems to be a lag at the intake counter. But there is no lag in the high schools. I can watch the trends with some confidence that the story I’m getting is pretty accurate.
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Posted by Tony Bylsma on March 10, 2010 under Drug Abuse Prevention Education |
In a high school class today, a student raised her hand while we were talking about crystal meth addiction. I had noticed her earlier during the talk as she was looking uncomfortable or perhaps unsure of whether she wanted to speak up.
She told me that her mother is addicted to methamphetamine and had recently been released from her fourth rehab facility back east. She told us that she had been removed from her mother’s care years earlier, when she, the daughter, was in elementary school. While her mother served time in prison, she had been sent to foster care in California.
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Posted by Tony Bylsma on March 1, 2010 under Drug Abuse Prevention Education |
In the past there have been problems that would run right through a generation. Sometimes it was a plague, an illness that brought a generation to it’s knees like polio. In other times, famine or wars that pulled families apart and sent towns or whole regions into exile.
These times were marked and remembered and from them we learned. The plagues of the middle ages were brought on largely because of a complete lack of hygiene. Eventually, the customs changed and bathing is now the norm. Cures or preventions were discovered for illnesses and some of them, small pox, for example, have faded into history. We learned, and the learning is what made the difference. Mankind rose above the ignorance and gained another step away from barbarism.
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