LIAM NEESON

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Liam Neeson is right. “It’s a virus.” Drug abuse is a virus. I could just hug him for his sobering remarks! As a substance abuse prevention specialist, and a single mom, I need all the help I can get.

As an Iconic actor, Neeson may not know it, but he’s part of the genre known as “super peers.” Popular public personalities who together with the mass media: movies, music, television, the internet, influence adolescent health-related attitudes and behaviors, like the use and abuse of legal and illegal drugs.

Neeson got honest about drugs and alcohol during an insightful cover story that appeared in the April issue of GQ magazine. The single dad of two sons said, “A teenager can take it and suddenly they can be hooked, and it changes their life and their family's forever. That's my constant worry. And I trust them, and they're sensible boys, but it can be just that chemistry that doesn't work.”

What powerful insight! When youth mess around with drugs, including alcohol, they’re playing Russian roulette with their brains! The science shows that a teenager who starts drinking at 15 years of age or younger is four to five times more likely to become addicted than if they waited until the legal age of 21 when their brains are almost fully developed.

Alcohol and other drugs like marijuana, hi-jack the brain, by rewiring and sabotaging development. The progressive and long term use and abuse of mind altering chemicals often leads to the brain disease of addiction. That’s when a normally healthy, active and bright person becomes so physically dependent on their drug of choice, that they will go to any lengths to continue drinking or drugging.

It’s no secret that being a teen is already risky business, but that’s because the risk taking part of their brain develops first and judgment develops last. So it’s critical that we protect the adolescent brain through healthy habits until it’s fully developed.

In the ‘90’s I produced a documentary in Russia and Ukraine and I interviewed a young man protesting the sale of alcohol. He told me, “The communists used alcohol to oppress citizens.” Another powerful insight! Oppression is slavery and addiction literally enslaves the mind, changes behavior, and turns a human being into someone God never intended them to become.

It’s cunning, baffling and powerful! It’s up to all of us to fight this battle because whether you know it or not, everyone in every community around the world, is affected. And besides, in Neeson’s words, “Everybody matters. Everybody.”

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