Dr. Sandra Morgan and Dave Stachowiak discuss the relationship between substance abuse and human trafficking. They also talk about drug use among youths and the best way to prevent. They wrap up by discussing the 2018 Ensure Justice conference and explain its focus on preventing substance abuse.

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 165, The Intersection of Substance Abuse and Human Trafficking.

Production Credits: [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave: [00:00:29] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie: [00:00:34] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave: [00:00:37] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, so many of us have been hearing about substance abuse, and so many of the issues here within the states and within North America around substance abuse. And there’s just so many ways this plays out in our society right now. And of course, I guess I shouldn’t say of course but I don’t think it’s going to be a surprise, that there’s a link to human trafficking as well too. And I think we’re going to spend some time really exploring that in today’s conversation.

Sandie: [00:01:11] So the intersection between substance abuse and human trafficking is becoming a highly discussed topic now. With the media attention to the opioid crisis, we know that overdose as a cause of death has overtaken car crashes for young people. And that was a huge transition last year when the 2016 stats came in. And now we begin to see how it plays out in so many other areas. For me personally, it became a huge commitment to start planning Ensure Justice 2018. Back in January 2017, I was in the Orange County We Can Coalition meeting, and Dr. Anne Light read some information that they had pulled from some of their strategic planning as they reviewed what were the risk factors for child abuse in Orange County. And the number one thing they identified is a family member with an addiction, with a substance abuse issue. And for me that was like click, dominoes Falling. Because it’s kind of like reading a book where you get to a page and if you choose this page then you go on and you see the next part of the story or if you go over here you’ll see this and this. And so, when she said that because in the We Can coalition we’re trying to work to end child abuse and neglect. And those of you who have been listening for a long time to Ending Human Trafficking, you know that prevention of child abuse is a huge piece of ending the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Because if a child is abused, if a child is neglected there are so many repercussions. And we see then that they become more vulnerable to being recruited. They become more likely to run away from the violence or they’re taken out of the home for a very good reason because they need to be safe and they don’t like being taken out of the home, and so they run away from the security there. And it’s always important for listeners to understand that our group homes for youth are safe, no one can get in and harm our children. But they are not secure, that children these young people 14 or 15 years old can run away and we cannot restrain them. So, what are the issues around substance abuse and human trafficking? That’s what we want to talk about.

Dave: [00:04:03] It’s reminding me Sandie of the conversation we’ve had many times on the show, and you and I personally too, of the connections between some of the real challenges we have in our society and human trafficking. And homelessness is one that comes up to my mind too, and we think about child abuse and homelessness and some of these other factors, that on their face we don’t think about in the same lens. At least I didn’t use to with human trafficking and they are often the starting point for the risk factors that then lead to human trafficking. So, like you’ve always been saying prevention and how can we really look at some of the core, maybe it’s not fair to say the exact word cause, but things that really do influence someone getting in the situation that ends up being human trafficking.

Sandie: [00:04:51] Well and if you think about a child who’s experiencing a lot of abuse, they’re suffering, and they’re looking for some kind of relief. And one of their friends offers them something and they begin to use that to self-medicate for the pain in their lives. It’s emotional pain, there may be also a physical pain but that begins an addiction journey that when it’s discovered everybody says, “well why did this happen to this kid? Why did he do that? Why did he make such poor decisions?” And people don’t look back to find out that there was a place where that could have been changed. And so, we’re back in that book, choosing another ending. And this child has an addiction issue that started because of something else in his life. And we’re going to at Ensure Justice talk about addiction, and the brain, and the science of the brain. And it’s absolutely important for parents to understand that kids experimenting at a young age, they’re actually more vulnerable to long-term addiction, the earlier they start trying drugs. So, you start down that chapter and you have a whole different scenario. And my concern for parents is that they feel like our house is safe, and so my kids are safe. But they need to be able to understand the trends out there, the way social media drives attention and opportunity creates opportunities. So, one of the workshops that we have at Ensure Justice, we’re pulling in an expert from our Orange County Department of Education, and Steven Lambert is going to do a professional workshop for educators and social workers. But he’s also really passionate about equipping parents. And he sat in my office and we talked about the parents, and how do we connect with them? And we’re going to work on doing the same thing in Spanish. You know we’ve been doing a lot more in Spanish for our Spanish speaking community that we really appreciate. This is a good moment to say that besides having the Spanish workshops track and Spanish translation for the...