DEA Uses Youth-to-Youth Link To Quell Illicit Drug Use

WILDWOOD – Drug overdoses in South Jersey nearly triple the national average, according to Nicholas Kolen, special agent in charge of South Jersey for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). 
That’s because New Jersey is a port for importing fentanyl, opioids, and other drugs to nearby metropolitan areas including Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, Kolen said.
“Drugs are coming directly from Mexico, directly from Colombia, right here, in this area,” he said. “We have the purest heroin in this country…there’s a better supply here, which means the prices are lower.”
After studying these national drug trends, the DEA focused on educating youth in regions hit hard by the opioid epidemic, like South Jersey.
The DEA supports the anti-drug teaching group Law Enforcement Against Drugs, Kolen said, but wanted to get into prevention education in its own way.
“The DEA nationally has invested a lot of money in South Jersey to do community events,” Kolen said.
The first DEA360 youth and family drug awareness summit April 28 at the Wildwoods Convention Center was aimed at elementary and middle school-aged children.
Before then, the DEA had only reached out to high schoolers.
“(Parents said to me,) ‘It’s great that you get out to the high schools, but you need to start sooner,’” Kolen said.
The summit’s goal was not only to instill confidence in children to resist drugs but also to show them how to lead their peers, said Pat Castillo, director of the National Coalition Institute.
“It’s not just drug education, it’s more of leadership, it’s more of refusal skills, it’s confidence building,” Kolen said.
At the summit, 200 children from fourth to eighth grades – and parents – learned the fundamentals of leadership and addiction; with older children teaching younger children.
In workshops, middle school students taught elementary school students the difference between dreams and goals. High schoolers educated middle schoolers about vaping and the stigmas of addiction.
“The power of youth speaking to youth can’t be minimized,” Castillo said. “We (adults) could get up there and chat all day, and it doesn’t have the same message as a young person talking to their peer.”
Meanwhile, law enforcement officers taught parents how electronic devices can be used to buy drugs, and which apps can hide data.
To spread the word about the summit, the DEA reached out to local organizations like Elks, Lions Club, and Cape Assist. Some children attended the summit for school trips, but most attended with parents.
The summit began with a performance by singer-guitarist Jeffrey Toth, a senior at Mainland Regional High School in Linwood, a finalist in the 2017 NJ Shout Down Drugs songwriting contest.
First-place winners Lindsay Masterson and Michelle Yu performed next.
Then, motivational speaker Aric Bostick explained to the audience how anyone could suffer from substance abuse.
“I have no anger towards addicts,” he said. “Broken people live amongst us. Life’s hard, who’s noticed?
“I’m a child of an eighth-grade dropout alcoholic (and) a bipolar mother,” he continued. “You see this happy yuppie and say, ‘Man, he’s got it together.’ Man, I have been in pain like you wouldn’t ever know.”
Bostick went on to encourage children to focus on dreams, and parents to support their children even if they make mistakes.
The Texas-based speaker performed for free because he was “impressed” with the DEA’s idea for the summit, Kolen said. The DEA covered his expenses.
Kolen expects the DEA360 summit to become an annual event but did not know if it will be held in Wildwood every year.
“To me, this is a big success,” he said. “Would we like to see 1,000 people? Sure. Would we like to see 10,000 people? Sure.
“What we have here today, it’s really a great group,” he said. “We think it’s a great start.”
To contact Taylor Henry, email thenry@cmcherald.com.