Quick Clips with Dr. Kilmer: 07. Getting Excited About Delay

In this series we talk with Dr. Jason Kilmer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He specializes in the development, implementation, and evaluation of substance use prevention and intervention efforts on college campuses and among 18–25 year olds.   

While Dr. Kilmer focuses on college campuses, his insights are universal and particularly helpful for parents with teenagers of any age. Share these recordings with your parenting peers as you all navigate this exciting time in human development (ages 14–25) and work to help your kids navigate away from alcohol and other drugs.

This podcast is brought to you by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The views expressed here are not necessarily those of SAMHSA or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For questions or comments about this podcast, please contact WhatParentsAreSaying@gmail.com. 

Transcript

Quick Clips with Dr. Kilmer: 07. Getting Excited About Delay

[00:00:00] Debbie: Welcome to Quick Clips with Dr. Kilmer. Today we're talking about how parents can get excited about delay letting go of kids Will be Kids I used in high school they're gonna use in high school. What's the big deal? Let's get excited about what's ahead. Let's figure out how we can embrace delay. Anything you can tell us, Dr.

[00:00:26] Kilmer. About letting go of leniency or passiveness of pa. As parents, 

[00:00:31] Dr. Kilmer: I love this concept of getting excited about delay and I'll do what I can to sell the concept of why delay may not be such a bad thing. But you said something important, which was we do hear people say, well, I used when I was younger and I turned out fine.

[00:00:44] Or they talk about their experiences. We're seeing a much more complex kind of landscape of substance use than we did, you know, even a few years ago. When it comes to alcohol, the different range of products that can be very, very potent, drinks all in one can. The person says, look, I have one drink, and it could actually contain much, much more than that.

[00:01:07] I don't wanna say that alcohol was simpler in quotes years ago, but in some ways it was. And now the range of products that can either be appealing to kids or unbeknownst to everyone involved could be much more potent, becomes very, very noteworthy. Cannabis. When you hear people who are older today reflecting on their time in the 1970s, and they say that they, in quotes, smoked grass, it's 'cause it was practically grass, 1% THC one and a half percent THC.

[00:01:37] In the eighties, it was two to 3%. T-H-C-T-H-C, of course being the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis that drives the high that people get in the nineties, four, five, 6%. THC. In the early two thousands, seven, eight, 9%. In states that have legalized S smokeable flour or bud, the norm is 20 to 30%. THC hash oils, concentrates wax, butter, shatter, what people use for dabbing, 60 to 90%.

[00:02:08] THCI hear people say all the time, it's natural, it's just weed. And what the science shows is it stopped being in quotes, just weed a long time ago. The cannabis, that's 20 to 30% THC in a smokeable form that doesn't occur in nature, that takes intentional breeding of created high potency strains. Those concentrates not only don't in occur in nature, that's not even the plant anymore.

[00:02:33] That's the sticky, gooey substance that has very little to do with the flower. So a lot has changed, and even parents that say, well, you know. I'm not that old. It wasn't that long ago that I was in school. A lot has changed since they've been in school, and so the seriousness with which we take the products that are out there, the seriousness with which we consider the impact of what it means for someone to use that as a teenager, as a college student, really is something that's that's pretty pronounced this point.

[00:03:07] Debbie: I appreciate that summary and that if we can. Drink that in as parents and let that inform us and help us get excited about delay. There's a lot of great fun stuff to do other than getting drunk or high with our friends. I don't know. I live in this fantasy world where kids don't use anything, you know, until their brains are developed and 

[00:03:35] Dr. Kilmer: well, and it's important.

[00:03:36] Again, look at the statistics when it comes to cannabis. Most kids aren't using, most young adults aren't using, and it's easy to. Again, because of either what we hear or see, believe that it's much more prevalent than it is. I brought up a name in one of the other quick clips, Dr. Jeff Linken. Dr. Linken does work on positive community norms where there's a gap between what people perceive and what the majority might be doing that actually represents healthy choices.

[00:04:03] Most people aren't using cannabis, and so when people say, well, everyone gets high, that's what they do. They get high and play video games. That's really, really, really not true. And so the good news is when someone says, I'm gonna choose to not use. That's the decision that most of their peers in fact have made when it comes to cannabis use.

[00:04:21] And so it's important for parents, caregivers, and guardians to know those statistics, especially if there is, you know, they can fall for those misperceptions as well. It could be easy for a parent to say, well, I mean, what can I do? Everyone's using weed. They really, really, really aren't. 

[00:04:37] Debbie: It's great feedback.

[00:04:39] Thank you Dr. Kilmer. 

[00:04:41] Dr. Kilmer: Thank you.