Michael DeLeon, founder of the nonprofit group Steered Straight, speaks inside Joyce L. Littleton Craft Auditorium at Hot Springs Junior Academy Monday morning about the consequences of addiction. DeLeon visited all five schools in the Hot Springs School District Monday. – Photo by Donald Cross of The Sentinel-Record
The middle Tennessee nonprofit group Steered Straight visited the Hot Springs School District on Monday to warn students just how serious the repercussions of addiction can be.
While addictions can wreak havoc on people’s lives, even culminating in death due to an inadvertent fentanyl overdose, for instance, group founder Michael DeLeon says it usually starts innocently enough with a simple e-cigarette one hands to another while in school.
“America’s in the middle of a crisis,” he said. “We’re in a pandemic of epic proportions and we’ve been in this pandemic for 13 straight years.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a rapid increase in overdose deaths involving opioids began in 2010, with another wave beginning in 2013 with synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
DeLeon spent 12 years in state prison for his involvement in drugs and gang-related activity but now travels the country, educating youths on the importance of making positive, informed decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. Also a filmmaker, he worked on the first five seasons of A&E’s “Beyond Scared Straight.”
“We are losing people to overdose death and drug poisoning in higher numbers than we’ve ever experienced, and I don’t think the government’s paying attention. I mean, I think they’re paying attention, but I don’t think they’re doing anything about it,” he said.
“And so I’m here talking to you rather than talking to them. I’ve testified before Congress, I don’t know, 60 times, but they’re not listening. So I need you to listen. Because the only way we’re going to end this is if you end it.”
The CDC issued an updated Public Safety Alert in November 2022 warning that six out of 10 fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. It noted 107,735 Americans died between August 2021 and August 2022 from drug poisonings.
He said that in interviewing nearly 11,000 prison inmates over the last 12 years, 95% said they began using nicotine, alcohol, and marijuana as a kid.
“Wow, the three drugs we are not only pushing on kids, but we are marketing to kids,” he said. “And we got it flavored now where you’re getting little dab pens in gas stations or you’re ordering them online with little California stamps.
“Middle school kids and elementary school kids are doing this, and you think this is funny. You think this is a joke, but it’s OK. I know why you do. I’m not judging. You’ve been straight up lied to by your federal government,” DeLeon said.
He said the alcohol, drug, and marijuana industries profit greatly from sales.
To find out why someone ends up where they do, he said one has to look at where they started. DeLeon, who started using drugs, smoking, and drinking alcohol by the time he was 11 years old, said he had every chance to receive help from family, friends, teachers, coaches, and youth pastors, but he pushed them away.
“The alcohol industry, the drug industry, the marijuana industry, the tobacco industry profits from addiction, and you are their target market,” he said. “You are. No one thinks it’s going to happen to them.”
He told several heart-wrenching stories, such as his young daughter accidentally shooting herself, although not fatally, along with his wife leaving him, losing his home, and — most devastatingly — his 63-year-old mother being murdered by gang members who were looking for him following a bad drug deal.
“I’m the piece of garbage that got his mother killed on Mother’s Day morning. And when that kid handed me that cigarette, I didn’t know where it was going to take me. When that kid gave me that alcohol, I didn’t know how it was going to affect my life. When that kid gave me that joint, a third of the room was smiling, ‘It’s marijuana, he’s going to smoke weed. … ‘ We thought it was funny I was getting a joint. It made me feel really good, except I didn’t know where it was going to take me,” he said.
He told the students that this is the most important time in their lives, and they are the only ones who can change their course and outcome.
Original article: https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2023/oct/01/steered-straight-group-gives-bold-message-on/