hello and welcome to the edge a show where we discuss controversial topics and problems that concern teens today today i'm meeting with marissa so scullion who is a prevention specialist at the washington drug and alcohol commission and we'll be discussing the  versity in education and i was actually substitute teaching one day and i had a prevention specialist from washing drug and alcohol commission come into my classroom and he was working with the third graders i was working with that day  and i saw that they had openings and i really liked the material that they were teaching the kids they were teaching them about respect and how to deal with their emotions and get along with others so i applied and it kind of went from it so what  work so we're single county authority and we are located right in washington right at the courthouse and we work with all fourteen school districts in the county so i'm in charge of four school districts with peter being one of them and we work at the pierce township high school student assistance program called sap and we help students who are struggling whether they've been caught using or need some mental  health counseling or if they have come from backgrounds of addiction and also i teach prevention classes not only the regular drug and alcohol classes but i also teach about goal setting decision making skills in how to respect yourself and respect others so getting road toward i think they ping is so popular because it's the newest trend a lot of teens you know i ask in my classes you know why are you so attracted to a being in the number one answer is i like the tricks that i see on  like the good flavors like strawberry shortcake or crim really and i like the colors so i think it's just a new fad and they see all the flavors and the colors in the tricks that they can do with it and i think that's definitely a starting point so w on being on different drugs and alcohol for teens if they can go to our website or scholastic has some really good news articles on what the ping is in how the vapor pen is constructed and just some student to the student assistance program a case that and there's a group of us full of your teachers all your guidance counselors the principals it ministrations involved in there is also  also have as p h s come in there a mental health facility in they come in we are outside contract providers and we come in and we meet with your team about twice a month if not every other week and teachers parents can refer students to set up and we kind of look at the students grades what the teachers think about them if they notice any off behaviors and then we go in get them in for a mental health assessment or if it has something to do with drug and alcohol i have a case manager that works with me bethany in the student in see tries to get an idea if they are using or not and then whether whatever she thinks is the best idea she refers them to different outside treatment so is the program or is it more of a local yes every school has to have a sap team ok so how does drawing affect teens differently from adults talking about nicotine in general ok so the brain actually takes twenty five years to fully develop so  although the drinking age is twenty one i always tell my third graders you know your brain is developed enough to responsibly drink at twenty one but your brain is not fully don't grow until it's twenty five so for jillian to affect teens it affects their brain development in their are learning development because nicotine is technically a drug so it can affect brain development so why are there so if you study on the effects of nicotine enjoying on nicotine compared to say one to two packs of cigarettes so it's extremely dangerous and because it is so new i am actually working with a dea agent who is trying to you know go after the in company because the drug is so you know the amount of nicotine is so dangerous that it can cause so many health effects to people and now they're making pods for unfortunately opioids in marijuana so it's becoming just more than nicotine so most state laws require somebody to be eighteen years or order to purchase nicotine products so how are underage kids getting these underage kids are getting these due to unfortunately the dark in you know the internet they can order them online there's really no strict you know usually whenever you go online you see oh are you eighteen or older if you just click yes you can get whatever you want so unfortunately web sites are doing that so people or kids are getting them from websites sometimes unfortunately due to the lack of checking someone's i d gas stations you know you think oh well they may they look eighteen when they really aren't so  on the on line a big problem can be anybody can just say they're eighteen there's no there can be no checking to me yeah depending on the website yeah so how do you think they became so popular so quickly it's only been around for maybe five or s years and it's really blue it's really blown up because you know they've been started in the beginning as oh well it's a way to cut down on cigarettes it's a way to quit smoking well then there were recent studies that they've been is just as harmful as tobacco and the jewels kind of look like flash drive so i feel like teens they're really getting popular with teens because they can take them into the schools and not a lot of schools know what they look like i had to bring some into one of my other school districts a couple weeks ago and they had no idea how close it looked like to a flash drive so the fact that it does look like a flash drive it does have those really good flavors and you know the nicotine the amount of nicotine in there is kind of creating a negative effect for them i asked a group of students why do you guys like this and it wasn't just because of the tricks it wasn't just because of the flavors or how easy you can get it into places it was the nicotine is so heavy in the pods that unfortunately it's creating them to have side effects of a state of being high so i believe that's the reason why so do you know of any punishment for somebody who can legally purchase nicotine anything to back related and selling it to somebody underage because the dea is going after the jewels there hasn't been too many punishments but i feel i feel as if after once the da gets more involved going after the joe company and going after you know places where kids can get them i feel like you know more punishments will be developed for that so how big of a problem do you view it as to be today it's a huge issue a lot of my schools that i work with it's one of the biggest issues they have because not only are teens using it for nicotine but now teens are unfortunately using it for opiate use they can put heroin in their oxy cotto and it's really dangerous i know a lot more schools that i'm personally working with they have to have hand and then the students would have passed so it is a serious issue and it's only getting worse so one of the things that makes teens attracted to them is that the think it's a healthier option it's not there's no side effects so why do you think people think vaporing is how i think people feel that they ping is healthier than cigarettes is because in cigarettes they usually have you know rat poison in you know thousand other different types of chemicals and in jewels you know it's that clear liquid but i hear a lot of kids say oh it's healthy it's organic there's no healthy organic fluids that you can possibly smoke that you know there's not some type of toxic chemical jewels and if they've been in general has been found to have so many health effects not only the amount of carcinogens that are involved they have just as many carcinogens as cigarettes would that can really cause cancer it can cause pop or popcorn lung whenever the air sacs develop in the bronx and that can cause a lot of respiratory infections and then there's wet lung because whenever you know you smoke the it's like a more like a moist coating in your lungs and that can cause a lot of respiratory infections so it is you know just as dangerous as tobacco so when i was research i found out that many people think the vapors thing is just in how in water vapor and that's obviously not the case so what other what else are they taking into the longs they're taking a lot of carcinogens carcinogens or chemicals that can cause cancer they're taking in pretty much you know a lot of the same chemicals as tobacco would so it is just as dangerous so we were talking about the earlier talk about the nicotine levels  compared to a pack of cigarettes yeah so how would you say the joint is more addictive than cigarettes how did would you say you know i think there are a lot more addictive than cigarettes because if you think about it two to three puffs of a jaw equals two to three cigarettes at a time so you're inhaling all that nicotine at once and it can cause you know light headed you know kind of being in a state of euphoria so it can cause nicotine poisoning in your body and if that will get on your skin it can be extremely dangerous too so we all know that cigarette smoke will stick to people's hair the smell of it stick to their clothes yes not the same thing  they have less chemicals than cigarettes would you say it's about the same i think it's about the same definitely yeah all right well be right back with you after a short break my grandfather served in world war two spending time with him were the best memories of my life i became a physician in v a because of my grandfather so i can help others like him i can't imagine working with better doctors or more dedicated staff fulfilling my life's mission with the help of my team and thanks to these veterans i'm proud to be a doctor in v a and proud to honor my grandfather every day search v a careers to find out more s process when someone's been caught if someone suspected but they you know haven't been caught red handed i actually provide intervention groups with a group targeting a group of students who have been suspected or caught redhanded and those groups it's usually six sessions and we talk about not only julian or the use of the drug that they're suspected ever caught with we talk about alcohol we talk about stress management you talk about th decision making skills and how really drugs affect the body with everybody system i teach a class called operation prevention i've been working with the b s a on this curriculum and this curriculum we not only you know we don't believe in scaring people as a way to prevent drug abuse or alcoholism we believe in the science behind it in educating people on how can it really affect your body when it comes to neurons in your body's messages to the brain and how it affects each system your circulatory system your digestive system your nervous system all of the systems in your body and we definitely focus on that in the intervention groups which i provide dealing with a hard having a hard time with my mom being addicted she's overdosed or i had my cousin overdose in this class sometimes is really hard for me to deal with because it has i have flashbacks of that time or you know i have a parent in jail and i you know because of opioid use and dealing i have a lot of those students probably at least two to three out of each class that i teach and yeah then i just have students who say yeah i use marijuana or i do you or i you know have tried pills and you know it is disheartening but the best thing i can do for them is educate them and then i immediately refer them to the sat process so that we can get immediate help for them so how long is the sop process we have you know with each school i'd say with with each school there's about probably forty to eighty cases  and it can last the whole year it depends on how much support that student needs so if they're referred for mental health they get a mental health evaluation and they get referred into counseling that depending on their progress it can take up you know they can stay in south for their entire you know school career you know depending on the process the process and the progress that they're making with drug and alcohol you know like i said it depends on you know how well they're doing and if they need extra supports so of your experiences which age group would you say is most affected by drawing i would probably say between fresh i'd say freshmen and sophomores yeah yeah you know at that time you know the i would say it was at the underclassman yeah they are you know experimenting they're going in high school it's a new world so yeah they're trying to fit into their experiment with things you know jewels are becoming you know that gateway to different types of drugs it's you know everyone's you know i have this misconception with a lot of students when they say marijuana is not the gateway drug to more drugs it really is you know you start off with let's say julian and then you know you need more of a fix so then you go to  marijuana and then you need more of the high it's like you're chasing that high or you're chasing the dragon so i'd say probably underclassman is definitely the most popular that i've seen how wou is affecting big tobacco companies you know julian right now is making a ton of money in that type of industry and i don't necessarily think it's hurting the tobacco companies actually think unfortunately that the tobacco companies see how well the v p and the east cigarettes are going i personally think that they are kind of working together so i don't necessarily think they're shrugging i think they're working you know the tobacco companies with the taping companies are kind of working together to get the same if to get the same cash flow so why would you say the people are turning to very being enjoying rather than regular cigarettes when the negative side effects can be just as harmful well some people think you know because like there are studies how the pain is you know really affecting your body there are some other biased you know studies saying that it is better than cigarettes so you know you have the pros and cons you know and i think because you know it doesn't have a tobacco leaf it doesn't have the rat poison it you know is a very you know so it's like you know a chemical or a liquid going in you rather than smoke that can cause you know your lungs to turn black i think they're thinking that oh well you know it's just a faith it's just you know a vapor going into my body it's not heavy smoke so it has to be healthier there really a lot of people having a misconception that it is healthier but due to the recent studies that we've been looking up it can be done just as dangerous so raping was originally started and the goal of it was to stop cigarette smokers from smoking cigarettes and move to a potentially healthier options so why do you think students who have never smoked cigarettes before would starve a been you know social media is the devil when it comes to this you know i hear a lot of since i've seen it you know i do have an instagram account you know if you click on that you know little magnifying glass and you look up vague tricks there's a million of them out there so i feel whenever people see them they see you know how they can make circles and all the other tricks that i've seen you know in the i know that they have so many cool colors and you know unfortunately you know parents give into that because i think you know they think well it's not smoking cigarettes it's kind of like a water vapor going in there and you know they're ingesting so it's ok and unfortunately parents have been i've heard parents buying jewels and buying vapors for their children yeah and you know the best thing is for parents or guardians to really become educated on this so how would you say they contain will affect a teenager like in their later years after they become addicted how will they affect them in the long run it can definitely affect their brain development like i said because you know does take twenty five years for the brain to fully grow it can hurt their loans their loan development as well it can cause you know like i said the gately it can be a gateway to you know alcohol is a or you know experimenting with marijuana or other types of drugs so due to cigarettes being so addictive it can be very pricey yet once because you keep going back for more so what song do you know if it sounds expensive or if it's more expensive i believe for a jewel it's with the charger and everything it's like fifty dollars and you know sometimes you know there's two hundred puffs in a job pod and you know it can become just as pricey that they have a huge tax on a liquid now so it is just as pricey is regular cigarettes so going back to when we're talking about the very juice the paul corn long can you dive more into so what it is is whatever the vapor goes into your lungs it causes the bronc in your lung to develop air sacs in it in an actual looks like a popcorn and lung and that can cause like respiratory infections it can cause you know you can run out of breath faster when running makes it harder to do any type of vigorous activity yeah so besides the are there poison and on the back i saw i saw on the internet it only lists about four ingredients in the job and so is this not true or is it just what makes up the ingredients i think what makes up the ingredients definitely has the carcinogens in there that can cause you know cancer and if you know popcorn lung well lung like i said well long as whenever the vapor lines the lungs and it has like a residue that stays on the lungs and that can cause different types of infections or so with your program yeah and you're everything you do how many people would you say you meet with like on a yearly basis so i would say i mean with about five hundred to eight hundred students per year and it's just not with sap it's with me teaching operation prevention that's created with the v a it's teaching we have another curriculum that we use called to get for drugs which is based on decision making skills it touches with alcohol marijuana opioids and goal setting that i work with  elementary students with a curriculum called protecting you protecting me and that shows students how to show respect to their elders in their costly and how to deal with emotions how to communicate with people and use refusal skills appropriately so do you how many schools doing including this program there are fourteen school districts we do work with all fourteen school districts i'm in charge of for so i'm in charge of peter's township ringgold of and for cherry school districts and you meet with people how often is it a daily thing a weekly with each sap team i meet with them at least twice a month if not more with going to each school etc i go to each school with tween once or twice a week ok so are also in the program you so you visit with a lot of people who are teenagers and they're known to draw or there are also adults that visit that are addicted to cigarettes maybe alcoholism yes so there's two parts to washington jargon are called commission so there's the prevention side which earth the prevention department which is you know where i work where we work with the schools we only we also work with the communities as well we work with senior centers we do community events you know that everyone is free and welcome to come to or participate in and then there's the case management side where we actually work with  in people who are struggling with addiction and they come in and we try to help them with as many resources as possible so for a last question what would you say to a teenager who's maybe their friends used going in there trying to get into it what would you say  them i would definitely provide them with the resources that i have to educate a student you know the thing is that i know that students are you know trying to experiment it isn't but my job is is to educate them on you know what can actually happen to them the side effects you know the resources that especially my agency offers and just advise them you know it's not all about fitting in you know you can make the right decisions and you know just try to get them on the str