Prior Lake High School students hear stories to prevent drug abuse

Prior Lake American

Some Prior Lake High School students heard personal stories on Tuesday from people who had abused drugs and were in recovery as a prevention tactic.

The presentations were put on by Know the Truth, a substance abuse prevention program through the Minnesota Adult & Teen Challenge — a rehabilitation and recovery center.

“We speak to students about the dangers of using and abusing drugs and alcohol, but we do it with a little bit different methods,” Minnesota Adult & Teen Challenge Prevention Education Manager Sadie Holland said. “Instead of going in and telling the kids don’t do drugs, we go in and share personal stories of young people who have struggled with addiction.”

Health classes at Prior Lake High School had three speakers. All three spoke about what led them to use drugs, what drugs were used and how the drugs affected their lives and relationships.

“Drugs became the center of everything,” one who went by Mike said during his presentation. “I never thought any of that stuff in my life could happen. I’m 27 now, and my life has been on pause since I was 15 or 16 years old.”

Know the Truth offers an experience that textbooks can’t provide, said Breana Wavrunek, who teaches health at the high school.

“Part of why we have Know the Truth come in is we can give them all the textbooks, we can give them all the facts, why they need to stay away (from drugs),” Wavrunek said. “What we can’t do that Know the Truth does is they’re going to give us the perspective of someone going through it. I can’t replicate that.”

Know the Truth also gives students an outlet to reach out and get help from outside of the school, Wavrunek said.

“Having a connection of knowing who to reach out to and having a person that wasn’t related to the school where they’re not going to get in trouble — I think that piece needs to be there,” Wavrunek said. “This might get students the help that, if Know the Truth didn’t come in, they might not get.”

Know the Truth began in 2006 and reaches 60,000 students each year, Holland said. As part of the presentation, students are anonymously surveyed on if they have used drugs and what drugs they’ve used.

“We hear that they really like the personal engagement of someone saying that, ‘Hey, I know that high school isn’t always easy,’ or, ‘I know the pressures you’re facing,’ and creating that relatability,” Holland said.

Students are also given the number of a text hotline to message if they have questions they were unable or unwilling to ask during the presentations or ask for advice or resources.

“We get a lot of interaction with students through that hotline,” Holland said.

Know the Truth also tries to cater the presentations to problems particular to specific high schools. At Prior Lake High School, marijuana and using e-cigarettes are concerns, Wavrunek said.

E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices used to most often inhale nicotine, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. E-cigarettes can look like regular cigarettes but can also look like pens or memory sticks.

The size and the lack of the cigarette smell means it’s easier to smoke e-cigarettes surreptitiously, Wavrunek said.

“You know when someone has gone out and smoked a cigarette,” she said. “(With e-cigarettes) you can sit there with it in your sleeve and it becomes less noticeable.”

A researcher from the University of Minnesota conducted a study on Know the Truth in 2017 and found that those who heard the Know the Truth curriculum in addition to what was being taught were three times more likely to have a change in attitude about the dangers of drug and alcohol, Holland said.

“We want to reinforce what the health curriculum is already teaching and reinforce what the students are already learning in schools,” Holland said. “It’s beneficial to have an honest conversation with them about real life examples of how quickly that road can turn and become a dangerous path, even just by starting with a gateway drug.”