Understanding ‘Addiction At All Ages’

Newtown Parent Connection’s next forum on Wednesday, March 16, from 7 to 9 pm at Newtown Middle School, will feature Dr Peter M. Glassman of Sandy Hook, who will be discussing “Addiction In All Ages.”

Former Surgeon General Dr C. Everett Koop informed Dr Glassman back in 1987 that preventative education concerning nicotine addiction should begin at grade four. Dr Glassman will present the effects of smoking tobacco and how it changes the lungs’ normal functioning and physical anatomy. Crippling and fatal outcomes can be the rule rather than the exception.

Smoking marijuana has been found to produce effects similar to tobacco.

It can be difficult for some juvenile and adult experimenters to recognize the harmful outcome of smoking after absorbing nicotine from tobacco and cannabis from pot without prior knowledge of the addictive process stored in their memory banks. Dr Glassman feels that knowledge of the outcomes of self-induced body poisoning can be a significant deterrent to substance usage.

Alcohol and nicotine abuse often occur concurrently. Much is known about the progression from occasional cocktails or a beer to the development of alcoholism in susceptible individuals. Like tobacco addiction, alcoholism can begin at an early age. The development of cancer and failure of vital organs — liver, brain, heart — is the harsh reality of alcohol toxicity. More in the public eye are the dire outcomes by motor vehicle accidents associated with alcohol excesses. Much is now known about the biochemistry of alcohol addiction and in fact there are medications that can take away alcohol and other drug-seeking behavior.

Stimulants like “ecstasy” and cocaine produce their own brand of cellular and bodily destruction. Inhaling airplane glue and nitrous oxide can also be a killer. It is now known that virtually all addictive agents can interact negatively with normally prescribed therapeutic drugs, anesthetic agents, and over-the-counter herbal remedies. Yet the words “drug interaction” are not yet ingrained in the vocabulary of the school-age population.

There are four well-recognized consequences to addiction — domestic (family), job (or school), society (legal), and health. The effects of developing addiction in one member of the family can cause chaos and dysfunction in all of its members. In his lecture, Dr Glassman will pull together the destruction of the individual by addictive substances and its effects on other family members. The roles and behaviors produced in children often are carried over into adulthood. These behaviors, however, can be corrected.

Dr Glassman has been involved with the treatment and research in addiction medicine for the past 15 years. He is one of 59 members of the American Society of Addiction Medicine in Connecticut and serves on the volunteer staff of MCCA (Mid-Central Connecticut Councils on Alcoholism and drug abuse) as well as serving on its board of directors. Dr Glassman is also a senior associate medical director in the Central Nervous System Division of the Department of General Medicine at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.

Dr Glassman will be delivering a scaled-down, age-appropriate version of “Addiction In All Ages” to sixth graders at Reed Intermediate School later in the month. For more information, visit www.newtownparentconnection.org.