Freshman learn Dangers of Marijuana

by Jonathan Herzog, Staff Writer

The chemical composition, addictiveness, and negative impact of using marijuana were just some of the things Parkway North’s freshmen learned from Captain’s Council and Peer Teaching. On March 14, students from these groups held an anti-drug presentation in freshmen labs to educate students about the dangers of drug abuse.

“I learned a lot from the drugs they told us about. The thing I liked most about it was how people who actually did drugs gave you their opinions on it, instead of people who didn’t do it tell you. You actually get a life experience from other people,” said freshman Matthew Ponsetti.

The video Ponsetti refers to was a video about marijuana where previous users of the drug described how it had impacted their life. This video was one half of the presentation, with the other half being a trivia challenge to test how much the freshmen knew about marijuana.

“I thought it was better than the ones we had earlier this year because it had the video and the Powerpoint after it – instead of passing out fliers and stuff for us to write down, they broke us into groups and asked us questions,” said freshman Vishal Patel.

This presentation was designed for freshmen students so that they can be taught about the dangers of drug abuse early on in high school. Ideally, this message went through to all the freshmen labs.

“I feel like more labs beside my own worked a little bit better than ours did because they really wouldn’t respond to us. But overall, I feel like the message was received by them,” said Drug Free Council member Katie Newton.

Some students agree that the message was received and may have impacted some students about recreational drug use.

“I thought it was just a thing that people do just to feel happy, but it completely destroys you, it ruins your life,” said Ponsetti.

However, students also think that the message may not have gotten through to everyone.

“[The presentation] failed because some students at the school have already done it. I’m sure there are freshmen here who already smoke marijuana. If they were going to show a drug video, they should have shown it at the beginning of the year,” said freshman Tyler North.

Other students agree that discouraging drug abuse may not have worked after just one presentation.

“There are some people out there who just have a lack of care, and they just don’t believe yet until they experience themselves. And they’ll be in the same shoes as those people in the video,” said Ponsetti.

The drug presentation was scheduled right before spring break so that it could address the problem of students making poor decisions over the break. Only once students return to Parkway North will we know if the message was received, and if activities like this are useful for the future.