MARIJUANA IMPAIRED YOUTHS
A CLINICAL HANDBOOK FOR COUNSELORS, MENTORS, TEACHERS AND PARENTS.
by
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The last two decades have shown
marked advances in research aimed at understanding the bio-psychogenic of addiction.
Technology has added more dimensions to addiction studies through facilitation
of more in-depth knowledge of pharmacology, neuroscience, and genetics. The
more we understand addiction, the better we get at treating it. Contemporary
addiction treatment emphasizes eclectic approach.
Addiction treatment is not a one-size
fit all venture. Many adults who go to treatment do so because of one of three
reasons: 1. They are forced to get treatment by the legal or family system, 2.
They have sustained serious health problem because of addiction and death is
imminent, or 3. They reached very low bottom in life, which precipitates a
spiritual experience of some sort. The unique feature of any one of those
reasons is that the adult will either seek treatment or face a more serious
consequence. This realization ignites some level of willingness to enter
treatment even if it is mere lip service at the beginning. On the contrary,
adolescents and youths often times lack the logical connection between
substance abuse and adverse consequences arising from substance abuse. This
obvious gap in logical sequencing deters willingness in adolescents and youths
to seek treatment. By implication this very aberration hardens the wall of denial
about substance use and abuse among adolescents and youths, thereby making this
population resistant to treatment.
Mini stories from real life
clinical settings are used in this book to epitomize the severity of denial
among youths in treatment. Names have been changed to protect clients whose lives
have long been changed for the better. Other stories are full accounts of different
kinds of street education and socialization that imbibe core values in our
youths. These core values, even though may become self-defeating in the future,
offer immediate protection against logical connection between substance use and
abuse and consequences. They also offer coping skills to youths that have been
verbally or physically abused, emotionally injured due to divorce, guilty by association
with the wrong peers in school, neglected by parents, or victims of socio-economic
ineptitude. These core values in question are rather generational than ethnic
or racially targeted. In fact, most youths, in substance abuse treatment
irrespective of race or street of origin seem to have graduated from some
legendary school of street survival academy. Their defense mechanisms, layered
walls of denial and confrontational strategies are mostly identical.
Emphasis has deliberately been
placed on working with marijuana-impaired youths because marijuana inflicts
damage over a longer period of time. It also opens up doors to other hard drugs.
Chapter one begins with a vignette to illustrate the progressive nature of
marijuana addiction. The rather slow onset of consequences of marijuana abuse,
coupled with its gateway properties, makes it a clinical puzzle. Working with
marijuana abusing youths requires special skills. As you will see from flipping
through this book various styles are used to confront irrational beliefs in
marijuana abusing youths. Some techniques are differently familiar, yet others
are completely unorthodox- In emphasizing novelty many clinicians ignore old
practices. Attempts have been made to strike a balance between powerful new
ways of working with youths in treatment and classic research in psychotherapy.
Classic researches in socia1 psychology and psychology (e.g., implicit personality
theory, rationalization trap, cognitive theory, gestalt, rational-emotive, and
solution focused theories
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About the Book
There are many 1iteratures that
offer insight on substance abuse treatment, yet very few have targeted specific
treatment protocol for youths. Marijuana is the national youth drug of choice.
Our society has a very liberal view of marijuana. As a result, we generally
tend to undermine the serious problems of marijuana addiction among our youths.
Marijuana is undoubtedly a major gateway drug to other letha1 drugs, but its
ability to stymie ambition, productivity, and hope among youths continues to
receive second-hand consideration in our national social problems. Many youths
abuse marijuana, yet there are no treatment programs specifically targeted to
treating marijuana-addicted youths. As medical marijuana movement gathers
momentum nation-wide, it is imperative that we prepare for potential
consequences of the misconceptions of medical marijuana. A recent CNN poll
indicated that 75% of Americans favor legalizing medical marijuana with a view
to taxing its sales and using the money to defray medication cost for seniors.
This perverse intent to hide a bad motive underneath a good one if allowed to
materialize wou1d have far-reaching consequences.
Marijuana Impaired Youths
is a c1inical handbook intended to educate the general public about the
implicit and explicit dangers inherent in marijuana use and abuse. The book
epitomizes the culmination of twelve years of clinica1 experience in working
with marijuana abusing youths. The main objective of the book is to offer a
desktop reference for addiction counselors, mentors, school counselors,
teachers and parents for working with youths. The book uses vivid vignettes of
real life clinical literary sketches to illustrate the challenge, cognitive
damage, discomfiture and distortion a marijuana abusing youth faces. Most importantly,
the sketches offer serious professional insight on how to confront and treat
youths who abuse marijuana. The ultimate goal of the author is to educate
counselors, youth mentors, teachers and parents on the dangers of marijuana.
About the Author
Dr. Kay Wachuku received his
bachelor's degree in Mass Communication from Hampton University, Hampton,
Virginia, in 1983. In 1985 he received his master's degree in Education from
Southern University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has been an educator for over
sixteen years, serving as professor of Journalism for three years and
subsequently teaching as adjunct instructor. Dr. Wachuku received a doctorate
degree in Addictive Disorders from the College for Advanced Studies in
Addictive Disorders, Breining Institute, Orangevale, California. While teaching
at Juvenile Court Schools in San Bernardino, California, in 1987 he began
making a connection between substance abuse and juvenile hall incarceration.
Subsequently, he began investigating the role of substance abuse and
juvenile/youth dysfunction. In 1992, he launched the first multi-family unit
substance abuse aftercare treatment program in San Bernardino County. The
concept was to house successful graduates from local substance abuse treatment
programs in four separate apartment complexes. Each complex was equipped with a
twelve-step meeting hall. Residents received on-going relapse prevention
education and counseling. All residents in the apartments were drug and alcohol
free. The program was an instant success. About 85 percent of the 450 residents
remained sober and had gainful employment past one year after admission into
the program. In 1995, NBC primetime news dubbed the program "Sober Living
at its Best." Dr. Wachuku directed the youth Substance abuse treatment
program (TEAP) for the Inland Empire Job Corps in San Bernardino, California
for six years. Dr. Wachuku pioneered more innovation in the Inland Empire Job
Corps substance abuse program than his predecessors and colleagues among the
118 Job Corps centers nation wide. In Apri1 2002, the Department of Labor
(funding source for the Job Corps Program) reviewers rated the Inland Empire
Job Corps substance abuse program best in the nation. He was a favored trainer
for the Job Corps National Health and Wellness Conferences and the National
TEAP bi-annual Conference. Dr. Wachuku is the author of TEAP Relapse Prevention Workbook and Anthology of Monographs on
Addiction Studies. He has appeared in many local television programs and
more recently he appeared on the TBN "Joy in our Town" program
discussing issues in substance abuse. He is a drug-free community activist, a
mentor and a married father of four children