Substance Use – Let’s Talk about it!

Substance use is deeply impacting Somali youth everywhere, especially here in Minnesota. The use of controlled prescriptions such as Fentanyl, oxycodone, and many others, have become prevalent among Somali youth and is the number one cause of overdose. Substance addiction has a cascading effect, causing many      costly social, physical, and emotional issues for the user and public health issues for the community. 

Substance use affects the growing brain

As youth, our brains are continuing to develop until we are about the age of 25. Using these harmful substances impacts the brain because they interfere with the neurotransmitters, which are the chemicals that allow neurons to communicate by sending and receiving messages. Neurons may potentially die as a result of the harmful chemicals found in these drugs. Further, substance use can have an effect on a person’s emotions, judgment, decision-making, learning, and memory. Drug use can also worsen any medical illnesses or health issues that someone may have. Therefore, substance use can have negative psychological effects on young people because it can hinder the progress of their developing brains. 

Reasons Youth might start substance Use

There are many different reasons that a youth might start to use substances. These might include problems at home, peer pressure, or maybe substance use is encouraged by an adult in the youth’s life. In other cases, a parent’s distrust for their child based on what they see or hear other youth are doing could lead to their child making risky choices in order to be rebellious. I have seen among my peers how this plays out among my peers. When a parent is already suspecting their kid is using drugs or engaging in other risky behaviors, the youth might feel like they have nothing to lose by engaging in these behaviors because they are already being painted a certain way. 

Pressure from school can be another reason why youth might turn to substance use. School is a place where youth can face different issues. For example, they might be struggling with grades, or might be having social issues, and turn to drugs to alleviate some anxiety. Peer pressure is also a main reason why a young person might start experimenting with substance use. For youth, the people they hang out with have a huge influence on their lives and the choices that they make at such an impressionable age. In most cases of peer pressure, a young person would choose to do what their friends are doing fearing that saying “no” will lead them to be an outcast.

Nicotine is Gateway to Substance Use Disorder

Gateway drugs can be introduced to children in the form of vapes, especially to minors in middle and high school. Vaping has been marketed as something “cool” to youth and many of them start as early as middle school due to peer pressure. There’s a misconception that vaping is like a better form of smoking and that it is less harmful, however, it contains a very high amount of nicotine that people, especially youth, don’t seem to not know about. Nicotine is a highly addictive chemical because once consumed, it quickly absorbs into your body and goes directly to the brain. Additionally, because nicotine is highly addictive, it primes the brain for addiction to harder drugs such as the illegal use of prescription pills. Substance use has become very common among youth in our community, and we all need to do our part in raising awareness about this issue and take steps toward reducing its impact on our community. In the past few years, it is very noticeable how much this epidemic has impacted our youth. We need to take action and change this narrative and make a better future for the youth.

To summarize, the misuse of drugs psychologically affects a youth’s brain development and physical body. In many cases, problems at home, social issues and peer pressure play a role in a youth’s decisions. Therefore, as a youth, it is important to surround yourself with positive influences that will add value to your life. Be mindful about who you are hanging out with, as they can impact your physical and mental wellbeing. It is also important for parents to have a conversation with their child to be aware of what is going on in their lives without judgment or jumping to conclusions. Substance use is a huge issue in our community, and it is important that we are all aware, so we are doing our part to combat it.

Written by youth Leaders:

Aisha Mohamud

Mumtaza Mohamed

Socaad Haille