Remaking America: Recovery High Schools And Teens Facing Addiction

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4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

Schools have spent decades trying to prevent teens from using drugs and alcohol. The Office of National Drug Control Policy spent $2.9 billion on drug prevention last year alone, but the success rates of prevention programs remains in question.

As part of our "Remaking America" collaboration, we highlight reporting from partner station KUNC on kids facing mental health and substance abuse issues.

One possible solution is recovery high schools. There are at least 45 recovery schools across the U.S. dedicated to students with addiction problems.

We discuss the unique challenges young people face when seeking treatment, and how schools can do a better job of supporting them.

This conversation is part of our Remaking America collaboration with six public radio stations around the country. Remaking America is funded in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Addiction is treatment is available. For help, please call the free and confidential treatment referral hotline (1-800-662-HELP) or visit findtreatment.gov.

Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Find us on Twitter @1A.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The coronavirus pandemic has taken a massive toll on teens' mental health, and it's been
0:12.9	devastating for those struggling with substance use.
0:16.2	The number of teens who died from overdoses nearly doubled in 2020, that's according to
0:21.0	data from UCLA.
0:23.1	Over the past 30 years, a new type of school is tried to support teens dealing with alcohol
0:28.2	and substance use.
0:29.8	There are at least 45 recovery schools across the US.
0:34.2	5280 high school is the only recovery school in Colorado.
0:37.8	It opened in 2018.
0:39.8	Savannah is a junior at the high school.
0:41.7	When a producer Chris Remington spoke with her last week.
0:44.8	In many ways, Savannah is your typical high school student living just south of Denver
0:48.4	in Colorado.
0:49.4	I love writing, I love journaling.
0:51.5	I also love going to start gazing with my friends.
0:54.4	It's really easy to be with myself with them and just go all out and just really live
0:58.8	life, especially being sober now.
1:01.5	Savannah's path to sobriety has been a long and challenging one.
1:05.0	Her struggles with alcohol began in eighth grade, and she soon transitioned to cough medicine
1:09.2	and other hard drugs.
1:10.7	After I put the drug in my body, I grabbed a whole new bit because I felt something that
1:16.5	I've never felt before and I enjoyed it.
	...

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