Final comments on addiction & the brain

Current drug policy is doing little to stem the tide of drug abuse in the United States. Presenting information about the neurobiology of addiction to students while they are in high school offers hope for improving policy decisions by these future voters. In addition, it provides them with a foundation for promoting safe behaviors and choices for themselves, their families, and the community. By translating what scientists are discovering through research into science that can be understood by the general public, educators offer their students opportunities to challenge old notions about drug abuse and replace them with evidence-based knowledge. We’ve seen a paradigm shift in the past decade. Parents who used to worry about the dealer on the street or the bad kid in school are realizing that the problem may be closer to home. Other than marijuana, prescription and over-the-counter drugs are the most common drugs of abuse among high school seniors (NIDA, 2012). Teens have unprecedented access to a much-feared and deadly classification of prescriptions, the opioids, a general term used for …