Young people of every generation have experimented with drugs and alcohol. Because of the wide spread availability of prescription drugs, today’s youth are exposed to a broader range of psychoactive substances than any before it. This has increased their risk for substances use disorders at earlier and greater rates. Today’s average heroin user is the suburban young white adult male and female ages 18-25. While all developing minds are inclined to take risk, this generation of youth, deprived of prosocial activities in the setting of government cutbacks on our youth’s resources, is plagued by a boredom and lack of connectedness is literally killing them. Having completed a fellowship in adolescent and young adult medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, I speak to the vulnerabilities the developing adolescent brain has to substance use disorders as well as the current epidemiological data on today’s youth and their substance use behaviors.  

Recovery is not simply about saying no to drugs but yes to a new way of life. Most people use substances in the setting of stress. For both people with substance use disorders and those that love them, recovery can be a healing process where old dysfunctional ways are let go and new healthy coping skills are adapted for stress management. Mindfulness is evidence-based brain training that has been shown to be helpful to both those struggling with substance use disorders and other mental illness and their caregivers. Having trained and practiced in yoga and meditation since 1999 as well as worked on a systematic review on the impact of mindfulness on psychological wellbeing cited on the cover of Time Magazine, I have presented to patients, their families, and other physicians on the use of mindfulness and other self-care techniques to help promote healing from addiction.

Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) is rooted in the chronic disease medical model of substance use disorders. It is an intervention that has proven to be highly efficacious and well validated in the scientific literature. In the same way that we don’t tell diabetics to stop taking their insulin and go to nutrition groups, I believe the science supports treating substance use disorders with the combination of medication and behavioral therapies. Having a board certification in internal medicine as well as addiction medicine, I teach physicians and other professionals within addiction treatment on the use of various medications for the treatment of alcohol, opioid, and other substance use disorders.

In a moment when powerful politicians are calling for mandatory sentencing and other Draconian policies, it is important to reflect on how these laws have failed in the past. Having majored in African American Studies at Columbia University, I studied the War on Drugs and its impact on Black Families for my senior thesis. Learning about the injustice of the policies such as mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses that disproportionately impacted Black and Brown urban indigent men and their families motivated me to treat substance use disorders as an attempt to decrease the demand for illicit drugs. I am passionate about promoting the notion that we should be using public health interventions for the treatment of addiction and not legal ones.