SARATOGA SPRINGS - About 350 students, including several high school seniors from 14 schools in the county, attended the Saratoga County Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention Council’s 28th annual Safe Spring conference Thursday at Skidmore College’s Palamountian Hall.

The Safe Spring program started in 1983, a year before the state drinking age was raised from 18 to 21. Organizers said they hope the conference acts as a starting point for students and parents who may face tough decisions about drugs and alcohol in the past few months of the school year.

“There are still a lot of parents having parties with kids,” Prevention Council Executive Director Judy Ekman said. “We want them to understand what happens to their kids mentally.”

Keynote speaker Michael Nerney spoke about his research on the way adolescents’ brains change when they begin using drugs and alcohol. Nerney, who lives in Long Lake, is an internationally known substance abuse prevention counselor with more than 30 years of experience.

“It’s not vain; it’s brain,” he said of the involuntary neurological emphasis on attractiveness that may cause younger people to stop and check their looks in reflective surfaces. Compared to someone in middle age, an
18-year-old has five times as many of the receptors telling them to fix their hair or straighten their sweaters while strolling through a shopping mall.

These facts appear contrary to the national problem of young people getting addicted to methamphetamines. The drugs often contain chemicals that peel the enamel from users’ teeth, causing them to break off at the gum line.

Through research conducted in Montana, Nerney found that addicted brains began to ignore their “appearance receptors” and rely on “visual cortex memory” that fills in the details of their faces from memories of what they used to look like.

“Every drug does this eventually,” he said.

He also listed statistics from a study done at Duke University that identified binge drinkers as seven times more likely to have unprotected sex with multiple partners, six times more likely to cut class and three times more likely to be self-injurious or suicidal.

After the presentation, students broke out into workshops covering a wide range of topics, including the prevention of violent relationships, DWI prevention, Internet safety, peer empowerment and expressive art.

Nerney said he has no delusions that his lectures can solve all the problems associated with underage drinking and drug use, but said he hopes students and parents follow through with the information he provides.

“It takes a commitment of resources to programs that cast a pretty big net,” he said, noting that problems can begin in the classroom, at home, or even in the locker room.

During the next few weeks, Safe Spring will host a series of discussions with area parents on a variety of issues. More information can be found online at
www.preventioncouncil.org.