The Student Newspaper of High School for Excellence and Innovation

by Ashley Torres

“The environment I was in, the environment I grew up around, seeing everybody smoke… one day, I was with my friends, and then we just smoked, and then I liked it ever since then.”

This quote from a student, JC, shows a reality that many teens in New York City face every day. It isn’t always about a “bad kid” making a “bad choice.” Sometimes, it’s just about what is happening around you. In our school and across NYC, the relationship between teen drug usage and mental health is becoming a bigger conversation.

To understand why this is happening, I spoke with Edwin Hernandez, Health Educator at 650 Academy St Schools room 229.  He explained that teen vulnerability often starts small. According to Hernandez, teens might start using a substance “little by little,” and then they want to do it even more. 

“Whatever high that they got, or the head rush that they got from the cigarette smoking, they want that feeling again,” Hernandez says. “Because it messes with your dopamine level… they’re always gonna reach back for that substance.”

It was very interesting hearing this for me but also devastating knowing that some people may want to change but end up reaching out for these substances each time they feel in need because they can’t live or stay well without the substance.

Hernandez also pointed out that while some people want to fit in, others are just curious. “What leads to that vulnerability is that they just start seeing all their friends doing it at the beginning. And then they either get pressured or they want to basically just fit into whatever group that they are hanging out with and stuff like that. And they just want to try it. They become curious”. 

But when I talked to JC, they had a different take. When asked if they felt pressured by friends, JC simply said, “No. I chose to do it.”

This is a big deal because it shows that for some students, smoking isn’t about being forced—it’s about their environment. If your mom or grandma smokes, it starts to look normal. This makes the cycle really hard to break because the substances are right there in the home or the neighborhood.

Aside from what’s happening in our minds, the physical effects are pretty scary. There are images from 2003 to 2006 showing “before and after” photos of people who use drugs. This person looks totally different from 2003 to 2006 by her facial features looking extremely deteriorated, face winkle, and facial parálisis due to the usage of drugs. This strongly demonstrates how drug usage can strongly change your features in less than 3 years.

LM, a student at HSEI, thinks more about the long-term damage. When I asked for advice for other teens, LM said: “I will tell teens that smoking is really bad for their health… smoking can lead to an addiction and affect you in the lungs through your whole life.” It’s easy to think we are invincible when we’re 14 or 15, but LM is right—the choices we make now can mess up our lungs forever.

Even though things have gotten worse over the years, there are ways to get better. If you are struggling with vaping or smoking, you aren’t alone. I even saw an ad on my Spotify recently from the Department of Health. You can sign up for help by texting or visiting DropTheVape.org. They offer free advice and tips to help you quit. 

Edwin believes that if we get educated, we can avoid the pressure to try it in the first place. “So if they get educated at the beginning, then they could avoid getting pressured or trying to fit into something or becoming curious about something as well.”

Listening to students and experts gives me experience to educate myself with the experts and also learn real base experiences with students and allow me to give this experience to someone else in the correct and most educated way. So this really matters to me and I believe it will also matter to many more people who could be elders and young.