Narconon Blog

Narconon International president Clark Carr gave a three and a half hour drug education seminar to 100 parents and college age youth in Mexico City on February 10th, offering key data to explain why youth turn to drugs and also how to combat this perennial risk to youthful wellbeing. A recent national Mexican study of alcohol and other drug use indicated that alcohol is the worst problem, that 27,000,000 Mexicans between 12 and 65 drink, a quarter of those drinking heavily. Marijuana follows as the other gateway drug with abuse of pharmaceuticals from the house and internet also growing alarmingly, paralleling U.S. drug use.

Some parents said that there has been an increase in bullying and other youthful violence mirroring the increase in binge drinking by Mexico City youth.

But the explosion of youthful use of the internet is probably what is driving up the sale and use of pharmaceuticals, just as it is in the U.S. Carr told the parents that before they are going to talk to their children about drugs, they have to be willing to be honest about their own use, not just of the medicine cabinet but of alcohol.

There was lots of back and forth on how to recognize symptoms and the toxic effects of drugs, with the greater concentration on how talk to young people about drugs.

“More important than knowing about each separate drug,” Carr said, “is to know that drugs, including alcohol, are basically toxic and that it’s really the quantity of a drug used that creates its different effects.” Alcohol in moderation is a stimulant, and this is its popular, desirable effect. But the same alcohol used in excess begins to sedate, slow the person down both physically and mentally, and finally too much, too fast can put one into an alcohol coma or kill him. The conversation turned quite lively over whether or not “cerveza” (beer) is toxic. “It’s not that one beer is toxic,” said Carr, “but how much beer, how fast, for how long. Ethyl alcohol is toxic, yes. But the liver can detoxify alcohol when consumed in moderation.

The parents asked Narconon International for further training and drug education sessions in the future. For further information on Narconon drug education visit www.narconon.org.