In the wake of multiple drug-related deaths in the private school community, the issue of drug safety is re- emerging; many of the schools that we at Hewitt like to compare ourselves to have been addressing the dangers of drug use with their students.
As young people growing up in a fast-paced New York City environment, we are exposed to narcotics very early on. “[Drugs] can be very easily accessed with all the freedom we are granted starting at such a young age; teenagers can get access to them with minimal effort,” says Amanda Rovitz ’15. It is no secret that in a city like New York, there are fast kids with money who use it to gain access to drugs and alcohol. So how are we to respond if one of those people is our friend? A situation like this is very tricky because we are repeatedly told in Life Skills and Wellness classes not to succumb to peer-pressure, but it’s really not that black and white.
As I was scrolling down my Facebook newsfeed, I came across a photograph that two of my friends shared. It was of a girl, named Taylor Snider, on a hospital bed with a lengthy description alongside it. She tried the drug Molly once and ended up in a coma for 46 hours. The doctors told her parents that she was unlikely to wake up, and if she did, she would probably have a mental disability. By a miracle, she woke up. She posted this photo to share her experience in hopes that people could learn from it.
I shared this photo on my own Facebook wall hoping to bring awareness about how serious this issue is. In school, we are told by teachers all the time that we should not use drugs, but their advice usually goes in one ear and out the other. The sad reality is, though, that it takes a drug-related traumatic experience or death of a loved one for someone to actually snap out of it and make a change in her own life or in her community to prevent any further potential drug abuse or dangerous situations. On the other hand, a death of a friend might actually make drugs more appealing when people don’t know who to turn to in such a time of grief, confusion, and disbelief.
Now that the topic of drug safety has been hovering over me for the past two weeks because of the recent events, I have been more aware of the efforts being made to spread awareness about the dangers of drugs.
After the final day of last year’s Electric Zoo Festival was cancelled because of two deaths caused from MDMA overdoses, the festival increased security and health measures as well as produced this PSA. Although it lacks facts and advice, the video shows how scary and harmful overdosing can be.
Made Event founders Laura De Palma and Mike Bindra said in a joint statement, “Molly can cause you to not only miss the moment, alienate your friends and have an overall adverse and unpleasant experience … but can also make you sick and can even be fatal…” The code to activate festival wristbands were embedded in the video below, so viewing the video was required in order to be admitted to the Electric Zoo Festival.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ-HKlf3Uno
After 15-year-old Sasha Rodriguez tragically died at Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles, the Rave Task Force was formed in order to inform the community about being safe at similar electronic music festivals. URB.com created the PSA, featuring six well-known DJs offering practical advice to you if you or your friends decide to take drugs. The video recognizes that concert-goers tend to do drugs, but it also mentions that, “You can choose to take nothing at all.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5mqUxCouCc
In this music video, Yellow Claw, Diplo, LNY TNZ, and Waka Flocka Flame come together to show the consequences of drug use. The video depicts a father who becomes involved with drugs in order to provide for his daughter. When she goes off to college and finds herself in a social situation, she takes those drugs and has multiple seizures that lead to her death. The storyline is intense; however, my eyes particularly widened when an innocent girl falls to the ground of a rave and is rushed to the emergency room after trying drugs just once.
Youths will be more likely to perk their ears up when people who they trust, like their peers, warn them in a serious tone that drug use is not a joke. So as a young person, I feel that it is my social responsibility to share my opinions and experiences in order to help better influence other young people’s decisions when put in sticky situations with substances. The first step is to bring attention to the problem and then move forward by informing my community about the effects.