00:00Marijuana is among the drugs in schools in TNT, but worrying is the 2024 statistic highlighted
00:06by psychiatrist Dr. Varma Dielsing that there's an 11% increased risk of experiencing psychosis
00:13from the drug in use by children. He says they need to be made more aware of the dangers
00:19which extend past this.
00:21In fact, what I'm thinking, we should let those children go to St. Hans Hospital, the
00:25mental institution, and see how it is. I don't want to end up there. Besides the psychotic
00:29they're having that psychosis developing. You find in younger minds, it affects the IQ.
00:35So if you use marijuana, your whole mental capacity, your whole educational future will be stymied.
00:43And we know education is so important to taking us out of poverty and other events.
00:48Drug pushers are finding very crafty ways to sell the drugs to students, including concealing them in beverage packs.
00:56Dr. Dielsing shares insight into the effects of drug-induced psychosis, which can also come from synthetic substances
01:03like ecstasy and molly, both of which are also in schools.
01:08So what we look at psychosis is something like you lose touch with reality.
01:12So psychosis is like, you know, you see a typical person talking to themselves, having hallucinations,
01:16seeing things. So psychosis comes about in individuals, in young individuals.
01:21Even if you have a family with schizophrenia, you are at a higher risk of getting this.
01:25While the psychosis can be acute, meaning it wears off when the drug leaves the body,
01:30people can experience persistent psychosis lasting weeks, months, and permanently.
01:35But Dr. Dielsing is concerned, as the drug use in schools has the potential to become a lot worse.
01:41We have recently, the frightening thing to me as a psychiatrist, when we noticed that they had crystal meth.
01:48So if we, if children, if these drug pushers start to get at market, push that crystal meth,
01:54we will have a nation of zombies, because crystal meth is a terrible, terrible drug.
01:58From where you sit and who you engage with, have you seen any persons come to you,
02:03children that is, who have been exposed to crystal meth in Trinidad,
02:08or have you heard any, any complaints about it being in schools?
02:12No, not yet, but it's there in the community. So it's just a matter of time.
02:16That's why we have now to put these guardrails in place to be vented for COVID.
02:21Conversations about violent sexual crimes perpetrated against children
02:25are weighing on the minds of many in light of recent incidents.
02:29Prime Minister Kamala Poussard-Bissasa has referred to the society
02:32as being hyper-sexualized and aggressive.
02:35As it pertains to pornography, are you seeing a decrease
02:40as it pertains to this particular generation of schoolchildren?
02:45No, what we found is that with the social media and the easy access,
02:49more children are being bombarded with pornography.
02:52And pornography in children, it's something, it's unknown.
02:56It is further compounded by the vile types of porn
02:58that these young impressionable minds are exposed to,
03:01which Dr. Diao-Ting says objectify women
03:04and can also be contributing to domestic violence in the country.
03:09The psychiatrist says mitigating it is important,
03:12and he suggests that a firewall,
03:14such as what is used in countries like China
03:16to control online content,
03:19might be worth taking a look at.
03:21Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
