Getting Stupid: How Drugs Damage Your Brain

This video presents to middle schoolers the latest scientific information on how alcohol, marijuana, inhalants and other drugs cause serious and potentially permanent damage to the human brain. Video includes interviews with scientists who use actual brain scans of drug users to explain how the brain’s chemistry is harmed by drugs. Hi-tech images of the human brain make the evidence compelling and memorable. Students will clearly see those areas of the brain that are impacted, such as the hippocampus, blood vessels and nerve cells. The long and short-term effects of drug use are explained in a way that young viewers can understand. Special attention is focused on the damage alcohol causes to the teenage brain. Although legal for those over 21, alcohol is still a very potent and potentially harmful drug. New research has demonstrated that the ability to do common thinking tasks is seriously compromised in the still developing brains of teenagers who drink alcohol. Program delivers an urgent wake-up call to viewers who may not be aware of the real dangers of how taking drugs can damage the brain.  

Utilized for training by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)

Includes:

video plus interactive quizzes, additional video segments, easy chapter references, graphics, music, teacher's resource book and student handouts