HOWELL — Before founding Safe Teens America and Neural Activity, Chad Williams worked in law enforcement in Colorado for 14 years. He dealt with teenagers in gangs who were using marijuana, alcohol and other drugs. He said a lot of their problems were the result of the decisions they were making.
“Putting the cuffs on teens got old pretty quickly and I just did not see it making a difference for our community. So I decided that I wanted to be on the front end of it and do something. That is why I started thinking, as a teen, what would have reached me,” Williams said.
Williams will be in Howell on Oct. 22 to speak at an event called “Nip It in the Bud” for teenagers and parents. The free community event will spread a message to teens to be pro-drug-free, as Williams prefers to call it.
Representatives of the Howell Police Department will offer a local perspective on drug use and discuss its impact in the community.
The “Nip It in the Bud” presentation will be held at Howell High School, 405 Squankum-Yellowbrook Road. Registration is at 6:30 p.m. and the program will run from 7-8 p.m.
“What we are trying to do is to bring parents and teens information about what is happening currently when it comes to the adolescent use of marijuana,” Williams said.
He said parents will leave the event with more accurate information that will allow for a more informed conversation with their teens.
“We talk a lot about adolescent brain development and how any drug, marijuana included, can derail that process. We want to cover what happens when you smoke marijuana, when you bake marijuana, when you eat marijuana, what is that molecule doing? Where does it go into your body? How does it affect your brain?
“We try to bring that to the teens in a way that is more understandable than just regurgitating scientific terms and terminologies, to actually mean something to them,” Williams said.
Drugs can derail the developmental process in teens, he said.
“There are consequences to (drug use) for teens. We want to be sure they understand those consequences. A lot of times, what we find with marijuana, is that teens kind of see it as a safe drug, or safer (than other drugs). But we know it is not (safer) so we are trying to get the truth of the scientific message out to them,” Williams said.
“Anyone who uses marijuana for a significant period of time (has) issues with memory and clarity of thought. The biggest difference I think with teen use and adult use is that in adult use, a lot of times we see the recovery. And in teen use … we may not see this.”
Williams advises parents to view and speak of the teenage years in a positive way in order to start talking to their teens about drugs.
“We flipped it and said look, it’s actually a time of great opportunity to build the best computer you can build, so to say. And to make the best decisions to be successful and to have the most powerful computer you can have for the rest of your life if you make some wise decisions now and push off using alcohol and things like that until later in life.
“So approach it not from a negative standpoint from what it is in being a teen, but approach it from a point of positivity and great opportunity. I think that will get a teen’s interest,” Williams said. “If I could say one thing to parents it would be to teach your teen to be pro-drug-free, not antidrug.”
To help spread his optimistic message, Williams founded Neural Activity, a drugfree, adventure-based program for teens. It gives him a chance to speak about a runner’s high or a sense of euphoria students experience in an activity such as zip-lining and relate that to how drugs can have an effect on those feelings. Neural Activity will open a teen use adventure fitness center called Base Camp in Toms River in January. For more information, visit the website www.neuralactivity.org