Catch da Flava Radio - Youth Panel on Drugs

For this episode of Health Talks Radio, we interviewed some youth participants about their experience with drugs. We asked them five questions, which were about what they knew about recreational drugs, if they or someone they knew used them, would they consider using them, if they used them then why, and what new drugs have they heard about. Overall, the youth participants didn’t seem to have much knowledge or information when it comes to drug use and didn’t seem to have much of an interest in participating in drug use. The most popular recreational drug the youth knew about was marijuana. Some just knew that many people use it, the smell and use of it, but one youth participant claims it is not a recreational drug but an “herb” because it comes from a plant, so is more natural than most recreational drugs and is often utilized for medical purposes.

The youth participants had interesting responses to the questions, but most didn’t seem to have any special interest in pursuing drug use even later on. One mentioned using hallucinogens and says that “tripping out” or having altered states of reality is not necessarily as grandiose an experience as many may believe it to be. Another participant mentioned they experienced “drug use” when they found a small bag of marijuana and thought to consume a small portion of it, only to not experience any mind- altering experiences. When commenting on new types of drugs they heard about, they mention something called “remix” which is cough syrup and pop. Another mention that they heard prescription drugs to self-medicate rather than face therapy. We’d like to thank our youth participants Nate, Thalia, Kayla, Mona Liza, Divine, Kylie, and Diego for their very candid and honest feedback.