Parent Alert: Is “Say No to Drugs” Actually Working?

There we go. Hi, everybody. All right, big question. Is Red Ribbon Week's 40-year-old campaign for Say No to Drugs actually working in schools? Spoiler alert, no. We've got a live, unfiltered conversation right here, right now, with someone who knows a lot more about this than the most of us. Parent alert starts right now. Okay, welcome, everybody. Jill Simonian from PragerU Kids here. I am doing something really different today. I have a guest, which I'm going to reveal in a moment that I'm very thankful and excited about. But quickly, rundown for anyone watching live. We are live, of course. We are live on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and X. If you're watching right now, I'm here with you. Drop a comment. Tell me where you're watching from. Today, we're tackling a very serious subject, and I want to have a very frank and unfiltered conversation in a very transparent way for any parents and teachers who are watching. Before I get into the Red Ribbon Week talk, reminder, if you haven't already, subscribe to PragerUKids for free, PragerUKids.com, free resources for kindergarten through 12th grade, teaching about American exceptionalism, our history, world history, biblical values, good character, civics, financial literacy, oh my goodness, so much more. Find everything you need in its entirety on PragerUKids.com. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Red Ribbon Week in schools. It's happening right now. If you're a parent, if you're a teacher, if you're a parent or a teacher at public schools, I should say, National Red Ribbon Week is happening right now. We're going to talk about it on this show, what it is, what it actually does or doesn't do. If you saw the spoiler alert at the beginning of the intro, we're going to broach what are the real factors that drive addiction in teens and what parents and teachers might be able to do to take steps to help kids and teens repair it. We want to talk about what parents and educators should be doing instead of maybe tying random red ribbons all over the trees at school to actually help kids learn how to live a healthy life. So drop a comment where you're watching from. Without further ado, the host of PragerU's American Recovery Show, Aaron Prager, is with me here today. All right, show them, everybody. Show them, show them, show them. Aaron Prager, say hi. Hello. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. I am so thankful that you're here. You're a dad. You're the host of our show, American Recovery, here on PragerU. If you've not watched that show, by the way, it is so powerful. The stories that you share and reveal from your own life and from some of your guests, regardless if you know anyone personally who has gone through the trials of addiction, this, your show is so important. So we're, I'm really thankful to talk to you today. Um, you also happen to be one of Dennis Prager's sons. Yeah. The last name kind of gives it away. I think kind of gives it away. All right. In the comments, you can ask Aaron questions. We're going to tackle comments at the end of the show. All right. Again, I am so thankful you're here. Uh, your story as a, well, I'm going to let you tell your story. You are a former addict. You offer real solutions for families. Just share with our audience, whoever's watching live now, what your story is. So that, I mean, what is my story? I mean, I usually get an hour to tell my story if people catch my drift in the audience. I know, unfortunately, I only have like, maybe like eight minutes. The too long, didn't read version is basically, I mean, you introduced me as a former addict. I don't consider myself a former addict. I consider myself always an addict. Oh, wow. I'm never I'm never cured of the disease of addiction, but I am, at least if I follow a rigorous program, granted a daily reprieve from a hopeless state of body and mind. So I like to say I'm a recovering drug addict and alcoholic, but I'm recovered from a hopeless state of body and mind so far. I mean, my my life, I was the short version of this is I was adopted at birth. I always felt different. You know, I always felt kind of outside. I always felt like the you know I could be alone in a room full of people I never quite fit in with like you know I had a Jewish upbringing but I was in Orthodox school and I didn't speak Hebrew so that felt awkward to me to try to interact with them you know all throughout life I kind of felt like everybody had been given the playbook to get through school and to get through you know changing you know puberty all these things and and I was just kind of like left on the side I just never felt like I fit in in any real kind of group and it made me feel a lot of different ways and But I remember the negative feelings that came along with that were immediately extinguished. The first time I really felt the effects of alcohol. Wow. The first time I felt that. I mean, like, you know, my story includes other drugs as well. But I always like to tell people because when they hear that I had done something like crystal meth, they forget that alcohol was a part of my story. But if you put everything in front of the table, you know, every drug on the planet and a bottle of, let's say, like Jack Daniels or something like that, I'm going for the bottle no matter what. like that, that was the, that was the effect that alcohol had on me was my master and what it really did is it led me to a place of as some people would call it pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization and the only way out for me once i got there, i'm sure we'll talk about what rock bottom actually looks like was i had to hit that place of spiritual bankruptcy of i have no one left to blame for my problems but me and that's really what my rock bottom was is i had no one left to blame because i was really good at trying to point the fingers at my teachers definitely at my parents, my father specifically um but when they put up those barriers i had nowhere else to go and by the grace of god literally june 4th 2016 is when i had my last uh consumed my last mind altering substance your story is and this is something that you know as a parent i have zero experience in any of this right i have zero experience and knowing you now I will tell you the conversations that I have briefly had with you. You are the most, I say this with my whole heart open, you are one of the most grounded people in our brief conversations. What I get from you here in the office, or if we were traveling this summer for America's 250th, anytime I talk to you, I get this grounded, strengthened, very faithful person. And so to know that you have gone through this experience of hell and you've gone through it is, you know, when I say it's the most it's the biggest story of hope that I've ever had such close proximity with, with the exception of, of course, your dad's experience with his accident the last couple of years. But you are you you represent hope. And so that's why I wanted to talk to you today, because we are. Well, that means a lot. No, for real, for real. Um, you know, we are living in an age where a lot of parents and a lot of teachers, we look at the kids in public school, private school, homeschool, whatever. And we say, oh my gosh, this, we are in a hopeless situation. There are more kids addicted to substances or the phone or something else. There are more kids and teens addicted now more than ever. We have these, you know, I'm just going to say very antiquated things that continue to happen at school, like Red Ribbon Week, where it claims to educate kids and strengthen kids against falling to the temptations of addiction and all that. But to me as a parent, when I see it, and I have experienced it this week, the real life programs, programs in quotation marks that are happening at schools, they're useless. And as a parent, I see these programs and they're useless. So Red Ribbon Week, Say No to Drugs campaign. It's happening across the country right now, public schools, a little bit of history context for folks. It started in 1985. It's officially cited as the largest and longest running drug awareness and prevention program in the United States, observed annually from October 23rd to the 31st. The campaign says that it educates children, teens and adults about the dangers of alcohol, tobacco, the misuse of prescription drugs, and other illegal substances such as vaping, candy with THC, et cetera, et cetera. Schools and communities tend to, nowadays, they host these themed spirit days to encourage kids to remember how to live a healthy lifestyle without drugs. And I'm going to name some of these themed days right now for the sake of opening up this conversation, which I do want to go deep on. But these are some of the theme days. You react. These are real. These are from schools for Red Ribbon Week. You got Crazy Hair Day. You got Team Sport Jersey Day, Silly Sock Day, Pajama Day. Many schools do display the crashed car that is the result of a DUI. You also have many schools have kids encouraging them to take a selfie, like wearing a cape, saying be a hero, posting it to the school Instagram. You've got teachers and parents handing out stickers to kids to wear throughout the day. What is your reaction to some of these things that I just mentioned that are done, again, in the name of drug addiction awareness and education? So, interesting, because I want to go back first to the origin of Red Ribbon, which in 1985 you had mentioned, but it was because, literally, there was a DEA agent, Kiki Camarena was the nickname, Kiki Enrique, and they were killed by a cartel. yeah and the the down in Calexico the community in the school they decided to start tying red ribbons in order to you know raise awareness to have people pledging that they're going to live not just a drug-free life but a spiritually positive life as well and and and what do we know about the public school system right anything spiritually beneficial it's going to get snuffed out very quickly um that's just the reality it is I'm not laughing because it's funny I'm laughing because it's true it's true and I and I think that kind of ties in like the sad but it's true and then putting a funny spin on it is the way we actually have to be talking to the kids about these days about drugs and alcohol and not just drugs and alcohol, but like you mentioned the car that they bring around. Like that is a good, out of everything you mentioned, that is the best one. I agree. Because it shows people what actually happens. There is a program out there, a recovery program, where people speak to each other from a peer-to-peer experience. Now I don't know how many schools are bringing in people necessarily who have lived this, who have gone through this. I had a great guest on my show Damon West who literally he was in he got sentenced to life basically and now he he got out he's not he's been on probation he's on probation for the next like 50 years or whatever and he goes around he's dedicated his life to sharing his story and he speaks to everything from college football communities to to prison systems that is what I believe to be actually the most impactful we have studies to actually back this up as well rather than you know saying I'm going to be a hero and with wearing a cape or dyeing your hair or something like that. And I get what the school's trying to do, but to be honest, I don't think that's very beneficial. And quite honestly, it's not getting to the crux of what's really the problem. And the problem is, is that like, we all know that kids experiment with drugs. If you don't and you've raised a kid who's never in your kids, like, you know, I've never mom, I've never had that. Chances are they're probably lying. Like they've probably tried something. Let's just be real here. And like, I don't have a filter when it comes to that. Um, and, or they're going to, at some point, unless you're like Donald Trump or somebody like that, like he doesn't touch apparently according to him he hasn't touched anything. Um, the kids are going to try it, but how do we actually tell the kids what the true horrors of a lifestyle like this is? And it's very difficult to try to do that with, with capes and dyed hair. Yeah. And the thing that I experienced personally was, uh, you know, I volunteered at, uh, my own kids school because I want to be involved. I want to be active. I want to see what's going on. Uh, just for my own information, I am a taxpayer, taxpayer tax payer funded property. I want to see what's happening. And the thing that I noticed that was happening the very most was a bunch of parents running around with bowls of candy, trying to get kids to get to a table, to add their name to a raffle ticket, to win a prize. And that is what I couldn't reconcile. Where was the education? And we, there were educational booths set up and I'm going to bring up another one. I'm going to bring up one of the more effective educational booths in a moment. But that to me, when I observed that, I said, where's the speaker for the assembly or the class that shares the story to make it real for the kids? Because most of the kids didn't understand that there was a purpose behind the adults chasing them around with a candy, trying to get them to sign up for a raffle ticket to win a surprised and that's the and that's that's a big issue that i see with kids especially like adolescence uh or high school is and this goes beyond just with like understanding what like drugs and alcohol can lead but it's the brain development isn't quite there yet of like okay we're trying to teach you something this is why we're trying to teach you something they're not going to put two and two together and if they're left to their own devices nine out of ten times they're not it's not going to sink in yeah and i i was the nerd parent saying do you know why we're doing this and these darling kids just sort of looked at me and they said why? And they didn't have the answer. And I said, we want you guys to be reminded to live a healthy life, to stay away from things that can harm your body. And I, I was, I was the one reminding them and I was trying to do it in a way that wasn't overstepping into some, into a realm that, you know, I should not have been speaking out of turnout with someone else's child, but it was really interesting. Okay. Uh, before, no, let's actually, let's bring up the graphic right now. I want to bring up something that what, that I actually thought, okay, I got to set this up. Let me set this up. Okay. This was an activity. This is a graphic that was on in a framed picture frame, um, at one of the tables and this organization, we are not affiliated. I am not endorsing this organization. I am merely sharing an example. It's called endoverdose.org. You can look it up online for full transparency. It is a nonprofit whose goal is to educate teens and young adults about how to identify an overdose in real time and then administer Narcan or naloxone spray to overcome a potential opioid opioid overdose response. So there was a booth at the school by this organization. There was a very friendly young person administering the booth who was not part of the schools from this organization and giving the teens sort of a, you know, a one, two, three, four step in how to identify an overdose and a potential overdose. And I listened in and I myself received the training. They were giving away the free naloxone. I am pronouncing this correct. Naloxone. Thank you. See, you're laughing at my ignorance now. that's why I have you here to correct me. I would never. Yes, I want you. I'm depending on you too. So they were giving these away free to the kids. My first reaction that this was going to be happening at the school was, who is this outside organization coming onto campus? Parents are not adequately fully informed about what this organization is, who has vetted this organization, what will they be saying to kids? Have parents given their express parental consent? I also had questions about actually handing minors a drug. Now, I know that there's little to no harm in using this, allegedly, reportedly. But I, as a parent, was saying, wait a second, this outside organization is coming and handing a drug to a minor child where parents may have missed the email to opt out if they did not wish their child to participate. But your initial reaction, we can bring the graphic up again just so he can take a look at it. your initial reaction and response as someone who's been there and done that. What is this? How should we be thinking about this? So it's, I think the question is misphrased. Okay. It's not how should we be thinking about this? It's we have to think about this. Okay. We have to, it's the reality. Um, and one thing I will say about naloxone is there's a standing prescription nationwide for it. Okay. That anybody can go get it. And it's saved at this point, probably hundreds of thousands of lives right um now people it is a it is an interesting like topic when you bring it into educational systems and whatnot like because ultimately i think we can all agree parents should have the option whether or not to opt their kid out of of basically anything that if they're going to send their kid to school the parent has the the buck stops with them whether or not they get to if they have to participate or not that being said then that falls on the to the parents so for the parents to be educated about this i think that's what this is about right yeah that's what we're going to get into now is the thing with opioids is that it crashed onto the scene faster and more brutally and more horrifically than anybody could have ever predicted now granted it had been in urban communities and whatnot and people had kind of like you know let's talk let's call it for what it is people didn't really start taking notice of the opioid epidemic until kids in three-car garages started dropping dead in their parents bathrooms that's what that was really when people started being like this is a problem right now. But the good news is that we live in America, we live in a capitalist system, and these companies came up with a great product called naloxone, Narcan also how it's known, and it's administered through the nose. It used to be a shot, which immediately will bind to the opioid receptors to prevent, and it'll usually reverse, an overdose currently happening right now. And why it's so important for kids to be taught about this at an early age is because they are not, it's not a matter of when, or not a matter of if, it's a matter of when they're going to encounter somebody in their lives, especially if they're going to public high schools right now, they're going to either hear about it directly or they're going to be a part of it. And it's not just, are you going to be the person to stand by while someone overdoses without any, like, Hey, I had the ability to do so that also, I didn't think about the secondary concerns of like, well, isn't that going to weigh on the person's mind later on in life? What if that, what is that going to create in them? What about what, what spiritual or emotional and mental instability will that trauma if they exactly they knew they had the ability to do so um once again like i said parents decision whether they want to opt their kids out or not but naloxone and there you mentioned there is no adverse reaction i could take that right now and be totally fine and that's what i didn't know about i mean literally i'm saying this as someone who is trying to get more educated about that that's why i wanted you here to talk about this yeah because a week ago i myself got the email and i said what in the world was happening for all the reasons that i just you know described to you. And then I said, take a breath. Let's read. Let's look into this. Let's discuss. And, and, and I changed my way of thinking. My mind was really softened and changed towards seeing the positives of it because of the reality that we live in now. And one thing that I, you know, I do want to bring up when we talk about the opioids. Um, and, and I think you and I actually talked about this previously. If you want to, you, you mentioned something and correct me if I'm wrong, because I want, call me out, Aaron. Okay. You previously mentioned something about if we will be educating kids, perhaps we should also educate them about why the fentanyl crisis has happened in the past few years regarding you know, regarding our borders and security and why there is so much fentanyl in our country right now and why this is such an unfortunate risk. Well, absolutely. I mean, it's an all-encompassing part of education. We want to educate our youth We want to educate our children to the reality of what's going on. You know, my father's big thing is he's a big advocate for clarity. Mine is let's live in reality. So it's kind of similar. And part of living in reality is confronting a lot of uncomfortable truths and pointing out when things have gone astray. It is no secret that fentanyl, which the precursors are made in China, they're processed through Mexico and they come up through our southern border. There's no wonder you're seeing now a decrease, actually, thank God, due to the closing of the southern border. But there are other ways that it's still coming in. And there's different drugs other than fentanyl now that are really wreaking havoc, 7-OH, Kratom, a lot of these other products that the FDA is scrambling to reclassify right now. But the educational components, you want to try to educate kids, not just into the nature of the drugs or the substances, but also the history of what's going on, the current events of what's going on and really beginning to give a full picture. It's kind of like, you know, hey, you might not, here's a whole thing of jelly beans, one's poisoned. And would you risk, you don't know which one, would you risk going in and putting your hand in there? If you knew that one out of the 10,000 or one out of 5,000, whatever the actual odds are is going to actually kill you. But one is going to make you feel great. Like that's when you try to catch somebody because once they've already felt the effects of it being great, that doesn't, the equation doesn't matter anymore. That analogy with the, with the jar of candy, you just got me. That is powerful. That I think just as a mom, I think that is what would resonate with someone who was like 10 or 11 or 12. But that's really where, that's really where the education starts too. The number one question that I always get from parents is what would happen if your child went down well that was on my little question list here so tell me yeah so i mean because you are a dad your daughter's very very young yes she'll be two in december and she's i have to just say this she's the greatest thing that i've ever done with my life uh she's a total whack job she's crazy person that's the best kind but yeah let's okay let's dive in okay because i do i want to talk about what is the most effective way to tackle this with teens how to how do teen you know a lot of people say well what drives it is it you know um, not having confidence, what, you know, the, the, the mysteries of why a teen becomes addicted is one topic. So maybe, you know, let's start with that. Why do people become addicted? Okay. So there, maybe through your story. Yeah. I'll preface this. I am not a scientist. I am not a psychologist. I am somebody who's been in this myself and I've been around hundreds of others who have recovered from this disease and what we all have had in common is that we felt bad and we wanted to feel better okay and so i start there and it might seem over simplistic but the reality on the face is that there is some sort of pain that someone is trying to mask and what we do know scientifically speaking is that whether you are seven or seventy if you have this predisposition you are going to develop a problem if you when and if you find this substance that you're trying to medicate a problem with now people like to compare trauma this trauma that this this that and the other thing and i'm like well i can do that as well i've had bad things happen to me i had bad events take place in my life um but i'm not going to use say that hey that was the catalyst for why i why i became and went down the path that i did what i will say is that and how i could already figure this out is i remember when those events happened i already thought oh i can use this as a as a as a reason to keep doing what i'm doing so i was already predisposed in that mindset because like i said joe when i first felt the effects i was like i want to feel this way every day of my life every day and i'll go to great lengths in order to achieve that so people ultimately develop these what i like to call how do you call it not so much drugs of choice but like drugs of preference because at some point you lose your choice you truly do um because they they're trying to fill something inside whether it's pain whether it's lack of purpose whether it's like the hopelessness a trauma they're masking um and sometimes it just starts literally out of the necessity of just not a necessity just desire like i want to feel good like i remember i didn't start because i was i just wanted to feel good but i and i remember when it switched from being a party into a lifestyle i do remember that and Once I got there, I couldn't go back. Okay. And did it start, did it start you by yourself or you in a party situation? I mean, the first time I ever, first time I ever drank, I just like, it was like just by myself. My brother had come back from college or whatever. And I had like, it was like a bottle of Captain Morgan or something like that. And I'd probably just eat Beefeater from my grandfather around the house. But the first, that was like the first time I ever drank. I just had like a couple sips and I was just like, you know, the time. But it was you. It was by yourself. It was me. Yeah, it was by myself. Yeah. So you already answered, I was going to say, are kids and teens medically predisposed or some kids and teens are medically predisposed? There's a lot of research coming out now that basically says that there is a genetic component to this. My bad. I just dumped my water off. That proves that we're live, everyone. Sorry, I interrupted you. Go ahead. There's medical research. Yeah, there's research that says there is a genetic component to this, which I mean, it's hard to believe that there isn't. I mean, like I said, I was adopted at the beginning of this. And I met my biological mother right before I got sober in 2016 and never met each other. I was 20, 23, 22, somewhere around there. And I flew up to go meet her and never met each other. And she picks me up at the airport and she's like, you want to stop at the liquor store on the way home? I said, great. So we stopped there and then we go to go back to the trailer that she lived in. and I heard and smelled something familiar. And I was like, what's going on back there? And she was smoking a meth pipe. And so the first time we had ever met each other, my biological mother and I drank and smoked meth. We had the same two drugs of preference. Now, I don't know, but that's a little freaky. Well, it's your lived experience, and that's real. And if it's real for you, it's real for a lot of people. A lot of parents say, how would I get ahead of something potentially if I don't know if my child is medically predisposed? How do you get ahead of it? Is there a way to get ahead of it? Well, I would say, will you teach your kids how to drive safe in a car? Yeah. Do you know they're going to get in a car crash? No. So the same thing applies. I always say this to people because this is the first question I get from people whenever I give speeches is, what would you do if your daughter went down the same path as you? And I say, there's a threshold that is met. And once you get there, there is nothing you can do. Parents don't want to hear that. But at least in my experience and the experience of hundreds of others that I've known and worked with, there's nothing you can do other than you as a parent set your boundary once the individual gets there. Now, that's not to say that you can't take prophylactic measures beforehand. And what I will say to this is that the number one thing that you can do is foster an environment of open communication from day one. if you are if you are a parent who is in recovery tell your child as early on and in as great of detail as you can your story so how much are you planning to tell everything your child everything everything every bit the harrowing stuff that the older she gets i will tell her about i will tell her about abscesses in increments obviously i will tell her all the nitty-gritty all the disgusting stuff i probably wouldn't share right here for your audience well i don't know there's The part of me that thinks some of it might be valuable. I mean, what do we think in the booth? He says, yes. So, I mean, I will. I'll let you cherry pick something. No, I mean, I will tell my daughter that it drove me to three separate suicide attempts. I'll tell my daughter in detail that one involved the ceiling fan, the other involved the bridge. And the third one, probably I actually cannot say that one on camera. It's very graphic. And sitting here with you now, ladies and gentlemen, moms and dads, no joke, I'll say it again. When I talk to you here, knowing you now, you are this grounded, faithful, incredibly strengthened person with this fortitude that is indescribable to me, for real. And to hear you say that, that was part of your past life, it's hard for me to reconcile because that's not the person that I'm here with. I appreciate that. The reason why I harp on the fact that it's so important to open an open communication line with kids is because you never know what they're going to experience. And listen, if my daughter comes to me and says, Daddy, listen, she's in high school or something. She says, I saw someone overdose. I want her to be able to tell me that because it is a traumatic experience to see that for one. And for two, you never know, like I said, what kids hold on to that then can like activate almost like a time bomb later in life that maybe she's in college and she goes, she sees it again and then she starts to develop and that might be her trigger to like start down that path. Like I need her to the best of my ability to feel like, listen, like, listen, if you're at a party, you feel unsafe, call me, no repercussions, I'll come pick you up. Now we're gonna discuss like how you got into that position. we're going to analyze that, but I'm not going to beat you over the head with a skateboard to be like, why did you do that? I need my daughter to understand from a very early age, not want, I need her to understand that dad is her parental authority. He's not her friend, but he is somebody that you can talk to about anything. If I fail at that, and she does have the same genetic component as me, or she does pursue that path, there's nothing I can do. And this is the part that parents hate to hear the most is that when she goes down that if if god forbid she goes down that path or if your loved one goes down that path you as the you as the loved one have to set the boundary to expedite them hitting rock bottom I see you can help bring rock bottom to meet the individual that's what an intervention is because that is then what catapults the healing exactly because most of what parents don't understand a lot of the time is that um how do you expedite the rock bottom then so parents are the great enablers Jill they truly are we love our kids like how would you feel if your your your child is you know uh it's like oh like i'm already down this road it's like i need money i'm gonna lose like my my my rent or whatever i need to pay this you're like oh of course i want to pay your phone bill i want to do this this that and the other thing well that's enabling they're not meeting the basic criteria for for living life on life's terms Yet you, the parents, are, for all intents and purposes, helping them live that life. I'm pretty rough, though. I am a sergeant at my house, so I don't know how I'm going to be. No, no, no. But I get you. But it's, you know, on a much less important scale, it's the philosophy of when the 12-year-old forgets the lunch at home and they call you, can you bring my lunch to school? The answer should be, no, I cannot bring your lunch to school because you forgot it. That's what the answer should be. Many times, a lot of parents will argue, but yeah, no, I hear what you're saying. I get you. And, and, and a great example of this is my father set a boundary before he knew actually like how to deal with it. And this is where I think God intervened in, God intervened in our lives many, many times throughout this. But I remember calling him one time and I said, dad, like, I'm going to, I was in a pickle and I'm like, I'm coming over. And he said, no, and I'll never forget this. He said, no, I know what you're doing. Don't bring it around to my family. So he said to me, don't bring it around to my family, not our family, my family. and I at the time I was just like okay whatever whatever but I remember I he basically had shut off that as a place for me to fall back on when I was in trouble so that was one of the things that helped expedite hitting rock bottom for instance and that's what an intervention is for parents it's the parents that were like I don't know what to do our loved one's going crazy they're gonna die we're worried about this that and the other thing so you come together as a unified front to set boundaries that maybe by yourself you're not able to uphold but as it but as together as a unit it forces that individual you will not i will not pay your phone bill i will not pay your rent you cannot stay here even if that means i'm going to go live on the street you'd be amazed how many times that a couple what a couple nights on the street will do to somebody oh my gosh and it's and it's heartbreaking it's really it is but like but to kind of circle back to Red Ribbon Week it's like this is the stuff that needs to be taught to people what needs to be talked about needs to be talked about is like listen like there are real things that happen And no amount of capes, no amount of funny hair, no amount of locker decorations and selfie decorations is going to change that if you're unwilling to have the real conversations about there are evil things out there. Yes, I choose my words carefully. Evil things out there that will and can come for your children. Wake up. And I do wholeheartedly believe that Red Ribbon Week and the, you know, first of all, incorporating these types of hard conversations would be exponentially beneficial to improve what the, you know, what they're what they're trying to accomplish. But I also think that that week is an opportunity that is has been abandoned by too many schools and districts because they're not including the parents in offering these types of conversations, this type of guidance, this type of I'm just going to call it very tough, real talk that parents need to hear so that they can share that with their kids. And that's where I think the school and parent partnerships should be coming to more fruition with these types of hard conversations for these things that are affecting our kids no matter who you are and where you come from. and that's the thing is like people are people shy away from hard conversations because and and it's not just like with people in general shy away from hard conversations not realizing that you actually because most people shy away from hard conversations because they want to have peace and serenity but you actually guarantee or you give a better shot to peace and serenity if you deal with the hard things before they manifest because once you get there and they're manifesting it's almost impossible to stop yeah and it's like now get don't get me wrong Nancy Reagan and all them that just say no drugs, like while it was extremely well-intentioned, it's extremely antiquated and it shows in the current manifestation of red ribbon. Well, yeah, because it's devolved into something that to me is futile for lack of a better word. I want to go back to something that you mentioned earlier and oh, we're at 35 minutes, but I'm going to get to the comments in a moment. I'm going to mispronounce this, but you're going to correct me. Kratom. Kratom. Kratom. What is that you mentioned because here's the thing we parents you know we know about we know about fentanyl opioids cocaine marijuana alcohol uh vaping what else am i missing the t the thc laced candy, the chips that are laced with fentanyl, you know we know we know about all this stuff cigarettes, okay but what is that kratom so kratom, it's it i'm gonna date myself so you say this is a new concern, well yeah as so as a millennial myself i was born in 92 um you'll remember that gas stations there were three substances that kind of came out around the same time and it was spice which was like synthetic marijuana, okay uh kratom which was supposed to be like the feeling of like pills or whatever and helping people get off that and then there was a thing called bath salts, bath salts was the one that got really well known because it was like fake cocaine basically but it made people go nuts, okay and so they scheduled that one out real quick, spice uh not so much, kratom kind of fell under the radar for a long time because in its in its actual just in organic form it's pretty mild um but the problem is is once again i and i hate to do this but going back to China, they make synthetic versions of this, they ship it into the United States and the DEA has been running ragged trying to reschedule this, emergency reschedule it, there's a couple different substances uh i think it's MGM 15 MGM 16 7-OH like there's research chemicals basically and they get put into lollies candies different kinds of you know things uh and they're sold, it's called gas station heroin, it's in gas stations like on the counter as you're checking out yeah and you can get vials of it different different ways to use it and whatnot and um a lot of a lot of kids like don't realize like what they're actually taking uh and some of these I certainly didn't know what was there some of these products this is really gonna blow your mind MGM 15 and 16 like those two have already been emergency scheduled and the reason for that is that um one of them is about 13 times as powerful as morphine and how is this legal first of all and second of all how are these names of these substances not in our common day vocabulary for us to know about they get changed faster than it's like playing whack-a-mole it really is and this is the thing that like i guess in the bigger spirit of the conversation of alerting parents to like what's actually going on in the world of substances and with their kids is that it is not the world that you grew up in it is very different and while you actually see huge declines of kids between the ages or young adults between the ages of like 16 25 actually using alcohol you're seeing spikes in other arenas like ecstasy uh ghb kratom 7-OH products a lot of the acid a lot of these other substances um that once again are not the same as you use like i know there's a lot of like probably like 70s parents who are out there we're like yeah free love it's like you remember how powerful that was it's worse now so it's more like i said open communication lines understanding because like at the end of the day your kids are gonna rebel like and and i know there's like the different thoughts being like oh i don't accept the kids are gonna rebel like it's like i'm okay i've been a parent for 30 seconds my kids almost two i'm telling you right now the kids rebelling already and it's only gonna get worse um it's a matter about how do i not how do i prevent it but how do I address it in a comprehensive way that's to the best of my ability? Because a lot of it, I just have to chalk up to God at some point. How am I going to be able to foster an environment that's to the best of my ability, gives her the best fighting shot? Yeah, that's the wise way to look at it. Okay, a couple of rapid fires. If your child sees a friend overdose, talk about it, correct? Yes, call 911. Call 911? Yes. And talk about, but talk about it with your child because that is like you say a traumatic event that can resurface later so you're so the question is if your child my child your child yes one's child yeah uh is in a situation where they see someone overdose what should you the parent do with your child how to talk about that oh i mean i mean you first and foremost explain like this of this be compassionate about it be compassionate but also be severe like with your with like what's happening like this was a real thing this is not something to joke about this is basically like the analogy i would use is um this with the same tone that if my daughter was in a car with a friend and they got into a car crash same tone like this could have killed you this could have killed them like you need to be real and be like um also just advice for parents out there like i said at the beginning there's a standing prescription for narcan at pharmacies um if if you're one of those parents like those like prepper parents who carry around like a tourniquet or something like that or anything like that if you carry around an asthma inhaler like you should carry around narcan like you never know yeah what's going to happen it's just the reality especially if you live in like a major city like LA or New York, Chicago, um people are just keeling over right and left, yeah address it, uh what if your child tries something and you find out, you bring it up, oh yeah of course I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna bury my head in the sand, ignorance, ignorance is bliss until ignorance is hell, yeah it's truly what it is, you can get, you can skate by on burying your head in the sand for as long as you want um but that's once again, that's enablement, that's painful it's horrible and it's a, it's a, the only way to really put it is, it's a denigration of your duties as a parent, yeah I agree with you and I've never understood personally, you guys know I get personal on this, I've never understood the concept of oh I'm not going to bring it up, that's their privacy, no we're not, but to me that doesn't make sense to me that does not make sense, yeah to not bring something up to not address it to be fearful in some way that you don't want to broach that topic with them, absolutely no, you go in, yeah you're not, yeah this is just a quick quick note to that is, um I raised my kid the same way that my father has raised me and you know hopefully I will have more children to also impart this upon, I'm not your friend, you're a parent, yeah Yeah. We can be friendly and have fun. But I'm also, yeah. You've worked with a teen treatment center. What was your biggest takeaway from your experience there? That kid. Uh-oh. Oh, boy. My biggest takeaway from working with teens in the addiction field is when you start getting into this lifestyle, it really does stunt your development. So basically, like when I got sober at 23, I was, for all intents and purposes, mentally 14 years old. I didn't have any executive functioning skills. I had no way to, I didn't have no tools for stress relief. And what it ended up looking like is I immediately started to fill the void of drugs and alcohol with other like negative social behaviors until I found a real spiritual solution to my issue. And I found that through a specific program. Those kids, the fastest way, and you're going to love this, the fastest way I found if they were having an episode and they were like freaking out or whatever, they were confronted with just like everyday emotions, the fastest way to calm them down, give them a screen. but see that okay how did you know you just read my mind what my next question was because we are going to comments i promise and i'm over time but i don't care because this is such a fruitful conversation my next question is the screens with you know giving a 10 a lot of the i certainly didn't but a lot of parents hand over the screen to the kids when they are 10 years old we know that the screens are addictive. When you give a child unfettered access to a smartphone with all the apps and all the things, it is physiologically addictive, albeit in a different way than perhaps substances. But do you think that this obsession and addiction with screens and children at such early ages before brain development, do you think that is adding to the addiction problem or it's neither here nor there? I'd be careful never to speak out of turn with something that I don't an answer to necessarily i mean at face value like logically i would just say like screens are known to give dopamine releases especially through apps and whatnot you see a like you get an app or you see like you get a friend request whatever dopamine you get something like this you see something you like dopamine release so i mean it would one would stand to reason that if you're flooding kids dopamine receptors at a very early age that they're not going to gain enjoyment from let's say like going and playing on a tree or something like that uh and that can that can i feel like could be dangerous yeah just just from like my you know i like to say my ooga booga caveman type brain like well i say you know it's like if i'm flooding my kid with dopamine at a very early age with something that's artificial they're not going to get the same dopamine and happiness from things that are natural parks playing on things seeing a dog whatever and uh going on a walk or whatever playing with the ball so there's a reason that maybe later in life there's a contributing factor but once again i'm not i'm not i'm not like a researcher on that well i don't think we have to be researchers. I think, you know, here, especially with what we do, I think a lot of what we do really is rooted in common sense. Like we say, like I said, logically speaking, like, you know, one plus one equals two. It's not leftist math of three plus seven equals Batman. That's it. Let's go to the comments. Oh my goodness. Okay. So, uh, let me scroll through these from YouTube. I remember very well that this is your brain on drugs commercials with the frying egg. Me too. I remember those from Instagram. Just say no does not work. Honest education on the subject matter does, which we hope that you gleaned insight from in this conversation. Here's one from YouTube. Let me see if I'm reading this correctly. If you're going to do recreational drugs, psychedelics are the way to go. Kid tested, mother approved, non-addictive, non-lethal, safe and effective. Let's make LSD great again. Okay. So that's from YouTube. Is that a serious comment or not but please lend your reaction to that so the way the way it's written seems like it's like a half troll but i know nothing i you know it seems like the half troll i i don't think the person's advocating for you know parents to be like hey kids like don't don't you know don't go out and party just stay at the house and drop a bunch of tabs i don't think it's necessary with the person saying um i mean there's a lot of there is there is some research uh that's basically uh talking about specifically LSD and MDMA to help with addiction properties um like microdosing a lot of these other things which i'm actually going to be exploring in an upcoming episode of American Recovery no something to watch yeah see we see what we can go through there but uh i once again i would just caution parents do not give your kids acid it's probably a bad idea yeah like i said i think the person was trolling a little bit but yeah i'm thinking that's a troll i don't know uh in the booth they'll we'll never know um oh i thought he was gonna say i thought you were gonna say something to half troll half troll that's what they're saying all right uh this one from instagram regarding Aaron's story pretty insane to be honest it is a it is a story of a harrowing experience that i think proves that miracles through faith and perseverance do in fact well it's important it's important that i point out to anybody listening to this that you know i and people always take issue with me saying this is like i didn't get sober god got me sober my modus operandi my motive operation is to drink uh to drug to be a degenerate uh and basically be an egotistical self-centered sob like that is my motive operation devoid of a spiritual solution and god basically led me to this program uh that ended up changing my life around i don't talk about it by name due to the traditions people figure it out but you know one day at a time um you know through living and chasing and trying to pursue a relationship with someone greater than myself that's really the name of the game i came from my drinking and i came from my drugs i stayed for my thinking that's why i continue on this path is because even you know like there's there's that hole in the soul that you know and this is what it comes down to for for anybody really there's a hole in the soul uh that that needs filled and whether it and for me it manifested as for me manifested as you know feeling like an other feeling like i'm insecure neurotic emotional like i i i'm tremendously inadequate compared to my family like there's all these that's what my hole in the soul was and I filled it with drugs and alcohol. And it wasn't until I got a good understanding of who Aaron was, and it was painful to go through that beginning process, just like for every kid. But hopefully, like I said, hopefully with some of the tools and things that we've laid out here today, parents can help head off that path a little bit. I wish that every single teenager could meet you and hear you speak. I know that they can. I know that... Well, I do speak at engagements. You do? Well, that's what I was going to say. You do speak. If you are watching and you would like to learn more about Aaron, please find him. You're on social media. You're on Instagram. Find Aaron. He can be, you can book him to speak at your, I mean, you speak to young people. You can book him to speak at your center, at your school, at your church, at your synagogue. You can book him to talk to young people, talk to parents because we didn't even get into, I mean, literally this was, I consider this like a little teeny tiny teaser, this is a little surface, but your story goes very deep. It goes very real. And I just, I'm so thankful that you're here just to like, at least just to introduce you to everybody today and give us a little bit of grit as parents to say, yeah, you know what? It is about boundaries and it is about open communication and bringing up topics that are uncomfortable. And I have in, in the brief conversations we've had, I have learned so much from you where I have, I've always been very open and talk to my kids about everything. Sometimes too much where they're like, yeah, mom, we've heard you. You said it a million times, but I have broached specific topics about drugs. I would rather have that a hundred percent, a hundred percent, but I've broached the topics. I've broached the, uh, the, the Narcan sprays. I've broached these very difficult topics about drugs and, and overdosing, um, with them in age appropriate ways because of your encouragement. And because of what I've sort of absorbed from you, the knowledge that, that and the advice that you've given. So Erin Prager, thank you. I, your, your daughter, what a lucky little lady. I'll have her watch this back when she's 13. Right. Which, yeah, you might need it when she's 13, sometimes 12, they need to watch it, But she is a toddler now, which is why some of you may be wondering. This is the commercial portion of the program. Some of you may be wondering why I have showcased our little American readers for toddlers in here. It's because Erin has a toddler. And these might be a little bit, she might be ready for these like in another year. But these are our little American readers from PragerU Kids. And we have instructional videos there. I mean, and you can color them. The kids can color them too. But these are beginning readers. and we have a series. I believe there's more than 16. I'm looking. Oh, there's 24. Oh, and there it goes. See, we're live again. Um, there are 24 of these little American reader books. Have you seen, have you taken one home? Oh yeah. Okay, good. Oh yeah. There's one that's titled, um, with my name, Jill, Jill's big day. Jill's big day. It's called Jill's big day, but these readers are created by an educator, um, created by educators here in house at PragerU. We have companion videos with a credentialed certified teacher teaching parents how to use these tools to teach their preschoolers and kindergartners and first graders how to read effectively with phonics. And anyways, thank you. Thank you for this conversation. Thank you. Check out Aaron's show, American Recovery on PragerU.com. fascinating inspiring very real guests a lot of wisdom in there not very real important conversations about living a good life um through a lot of hard work and through God as you just mentioned and for more conversations about raising kids and getting the info that we need getting the fortitude that we need as parents and teachers uh more episodes of Parent Alert at prageru.com slash parent alert and subscribe for free to pragerukids.com as always any last words before we sign off and say goodbye no i'm just grateful to be here and uh thank you thank you thank you all right i always say god bless and godspeed to all of us see you next time on parent alert