Kyle Liggett

April 25th, 2019

Mrs Podolan

English 4

The Problems That Come With Drug Abuse

Over and over substance abuse has caused many growing problems throughout Battle Creek, Michigan. The Substance Abuse Council here in Battle Creek has been working around the clock, putting in countless hours a week trying to help students ages 13-19, in middle school and high school, take the right steps to avoid substance abuse and living a healthy lifestyle.

Myself, Kyle Liggett and my team Julianne Gilley, Haley Orr, Logan Hayes, Alicia Lake and Morgan Miller interviewed members of the council on March 25th, 2019, Danyelle Maitland and Sean Washington. The meeting was filled with reports and perspective that some might never think about.

What is known now is that there is a problem in Battle Creek, and that problem is substance abuse. In 2019, there were 31 opiate/heroine non-fatal overdoses in Battle Creek. Danyelle and Sean and other members of the council have a mission that they stand by and that mission is to achieve greater community health through the prevention and reduction of substance abuse.

Danyelle and Sean are working numberless hours a week trying to prevent this abuse from happening in the future. They do this by going to schools and teaching classes about prevention, life skills, and what not to do. They are also very creative about their work. Sean recently did a class where he played a recently popular video game, Fortnite, with students. The game taught him and other students’ communication skills, team skills and learning skills that they can develop throughout their lives and the students didn’t even realize what Sean was doing, which brought them closer together while learning to express themselves throughout the game. This will help teach kids to express themselves and open up to more people comfortably.

      In recent studies taken,  17 percent of 9th graders have been intoxicated in their lifetime. What Danyelle and Sean made clear is that they can’t do it by themselves. They made it clear that the parents need to start educating their kids and being the parent that will help substance stop at such an early age. Parents need to be the parents of these students, not their friends that are going to encourage these behaviors.

They are a small organization with big hearts. The Substance Abuse Council wants what is best for the future of these kids. They want kids to be great in life, but also come back to Battle Creek and raise their kids here because this is a great place to be. The Substance Abuse Council wants to have a great impact on their community and they want to touch other lives in greater ways.

Citations

“Battle Creek Substance Abuse Council.” Substance Abuse Council, www.drugfreebc.org/.