Great Falls organizations are spreading awareness about drug prevention during Red Ribbon Week, a national campaign that highlights the dangers of substance use among youth.
"Red Ribbon Week began in 1988 during the Reagan administration to honor a drug enforcement agent who was killed while investigating drug cartels," according to Penny Paul, tobacco education specialist with the Cascade City-County Health Department.
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“When you look at Montana statistics, we are second in the nation to youth vaping. So Montana and Louisiana are second in the nation. We're at 24% of our high school kids vape in Montana," Paul said.
“And now that they're studying the nicotine in vapes and the flavors and the synthetic nicotine, because if there's synthetic nicotine in vapes, they can put a lot more nicotine in one vape. And so when you look at young people's brains are not developed to their 26. You know, we want healthy kids," Paul said.
Beth Price Morrison, substance abuse prevention specialist and program manager with Alliance for Youth, regularly speaks to schools about marijuana's effects on teenagers. She emphasizes that brain damage from substance use differs significantly from physical injuries.
"The brain doesn't heal the same way a skinny or broken bone does when it's damaged. It's damaged. And marijuana really severely impairs the development of that prefrontal cortex," Morrison said.
"What's really concerning is the vape crisis is kind of colliding with the marijuana youth crisis, because if you catch your kid with a vape, there's a probably a pretty good chance there's marijuana in there, too. That is the vehicle that most of them use," Morrison said.
"I know that we're not going to be able to totally eradicate this, but our kids deserve a better future each and every one of them matters, and they're going to be the ones taking care of you and I someday. So we want them to have the best opportunities they can," Morrison said.
