[00:00:05] Jake White: Alright, everyone, welcome back to the Party Talk podcast where we empower leaders in youth drug prevention. And today I’m chatting with Rodney Poole. And this guy is crushing prevention work all over the nation. He is traveling, people are asking him for him back at their schools. He’s doing something right. So I thought, we’ve got to interview this guy, see what he’s up to what’s working in the field, what he’s seeing, and then how you can have him at your school or your community, so that he can work with you too. Because honestly, I said this to Rodney before, there’s not enough people doing this work. We are absolutely a team. There’s no competition. So anywhere you see a need for this guy, we’re going to leave his contact information here. Rodney, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

[00:00:50] Rodney Poole: Thank you so much, Jake. Thank you so much for that intro, bro. I really appreciate it. I’m doing amazing. Life is good today, I tell you. To be interviewed by you. It’s like, me must be somebody but it’s official. I’m somebody.

[00:01:06] Jake White: I think so. You’re making me feel good. I’m blushing.

[00:01:14] Rodney Poole: You’re killing it, bro. My hat’s off to you and what you’re doing and the creativity and the passion that you bring. You’re changing lives. When a kid can realize they don’t have to drink in college, and they can celebrate and be who they are authentically without pretending and faking, and then they realize they’ve got other people around them who are thinking the same thing and that’s huge.

[00:01:43] Jake White: I appreciate you saying that. I think so too. Give me the good old intro. You meet somebody at a drug prevention conference or whatever? What are some things that you tell people about you? And then maybe a few things just personally to get to know you as well?

[00:02:02] Rodney Poole: Awesome. Well, first of all, I’ve been in long term recovery from for 30 years now, this is my 30th year. And I work with young people and I educate them on the risks of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. I don’t use scare tactics, I don’t come and try to scare kids into making healthy decisions. I literally present the research based information on the risks of a teenager using alcohol, tobacco and other drugs and offer them some alternatives. Some ideas on, of course, I share my story about what happened to me in an age appropriate way. I don’t leave out all the gory details, but I share with them that the research is very clear the earlier young person starts using the higher the risk of addiction or substance use disorder. But also the higher the risk of academic or athletic performance being negatively affected the risk of having to lie to their parents that there’s so many risks for a teenager consuming alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. So what I usually do, historically, for the last 10-12 years, I’ve gone to schools and work with schools for three to five days, covering whatever their needs are, when if it’s the 10th graders, we want to talk to them about vaping and other drugs, I’ll do that. But also may do some assemblies and large group sessions. But most of the sessions are smaller group sessions, where we found that students have an opportunity to have more intimate conversation, be able to ask questions, they’ll ask questions that they may not ask in front of the entire student body. So if it’s just that group of students, and we’ve had some really good discussions, amazing opportunities for role play for how to help a friend as well as refusal skills. Like I said, we don’t do the whole scare tactic thing, that thing that’s been proven that it’s not effective. It’s not effective long term. Kids want to know, why should I just say no? And also kids want to realize, I can say, “No”, and still be cool. I can still be celebrated and liked by my friends. And my friends really don’t want to drink either, it’s proven the majority of high school students in the US don’t drink, the majority don’t, but we’re not talking about the majority on the news, they’re talking about that small group of students that kind of get into trouble with alcohol or other drugs. I’m sure you’ve seen it at colleges as well, where there are a large number of students on campus that really don’t want to do the whole blackout, the board challenge or the blackout drunk level of drinking, they don’t want to do that. So many problems involved.

“A Life Dedicated to Youth Drug Prevention and Education”

[00:04:38] Jake White: I think you hit it on the head. It’s like students want to fit in, they want to feel good. So if they think that that’s the way they have to do it, then all I’m gonna have to start drinking now because that’s what all my friends are doing, or that’s what I have to do to feel like an adult now cope with stress and whatever it is. So you’re coming in what I love, and you mentioned this, I want to have you expand on and a little bit more. So when you’re working with communities, you’re actually going into this town and you’re spending almost a week there and every day you’re showing up meeting with new classrooms. And I can imagine, it’s almost like you’re implementing a sort of a curriculum with them that they get to interact with, they get to ask you questions. And it’s more of a dialogue than, for example, like an assembly experience that we can do is different, because it can be an experience, but it’s not as much of a dialogue, it’s more of an internal dialogue with you onstage and they can connect, but they’re not getting to really, really connect with you, and over plenty of days. So how does that work? Like, what kind of classes if someone’s saying, that sounds really cool. What would they need to do in order to make that actually happen? I haven’t even heard of people doing that.

[00:05:57] Rodney Poole: Well, it’s a model that was created 40 years ago, with this company called FCD. And they are initially called “Freedom Chemical Dependency”. And they kind of got absorbed by the Hazel and Betty Ford Foundation, and which is huge and very well known. But they actually taught me, they trained me, and I took the curriculum, and added my own spin on it, because it’s very personal. I tell kids, as soon as when you pour something into your mouth, or you inhale something, or you ingest something, it doesn’t get more personal than that. So I present to them from a personal standpoint my curriculum, I’ve kind of made some changes to it. And some things took some things off, because honestly, in four days, I have maybe four to five sessions with each 10th grade. So we don’t have time to talk about all the substances that are out there. Statistically speaking, students are going to come into contact with alcohol, marijuana vaping, whether it’s THC, or nicotine, and prescription medications. Now, if they asked me about Methylene dioxide, Methamphetamine. We could talk about that. But the likelihood of a 10th grader in the US coming into contact with is a mess, in comparison to alcohol is slim. Honestly, we just so we just don’t have time to talk about all the substances that are out there. But I do my best to really nail home the idea that ingesting a substance for a teenager affects the teenage brain. Their brains are still developing, and if you start to ingest chemicals into your brain, while it’s still developing, you can literally change the course of your life, you can literally change the direction, the probability that your brain develops the way it’s supposed to. So that’s one of the big things that I that I nail home. And we kind of add stuff on to that we talk about refusal scales, we talk about, I mentioned what does a problem look like with vaping? What does a problem look like with alcohol, and how they’re drinking to the point of passing out, there may be some drinking taking place in eighth grade 11th grade amongst the, your, some of your peers, but your friend is drinking to the point of passing out every time they’re obsessed with it, there’s something going on. So I give students a practice actually confronting their friend in a way that is a friend if you will, it’s not like the intervention, it is everything. I’m noticing some things, but also encourage them to keep themselves safe as well, they may not be able to ride with that friend who goes to a party, it may be a much safer alternative to tell them I’ll meet you there or not be their caregiver definitely pay attention to their friends. My website is preventioneducationworks.com. And if a potential client, someone want to reach out to me, I love to chat and find out what their needs are. I don’t do cookie cutter prevention, I don’t show up and do the same thing at every school. There’s a lot of similarities. But school notices, they have a problem with vaping we’ll really focus on vaping. And we may talk about alcohol and other drugs, but we really want to focus on vaping for that school.

[00:09:28] Jake White: That’s good. So you can tailor what you do to the specific community’s needs, that’s essential. That’s so good. So I’m gonna ask you a personal one. So you’ve been doing this set for 12 years. And just from a personal side, what’s been your favorite trip? You’ve got to take because I think what’s fun about what you’re doing is you’re impacting people’s lives and you’re traveling when you’re meeting people from across the nation. And what’s been your favorite trip so far you went on for work?

[00:10:05] Rodney Poole: I’ll give you us a brief list because it varies. I love doing US stuff. But the international stuff is amazing once you get there. I’ve been to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand, Nairobi, Hanoi, Vietnam, Mumbai, New Delhi, in India and all over the US. I worked at Philips and over and that was amazing. Call me Philips. I tell you, I love our country, going to other countries gives you a perspective of what we have right here. I can’t name one school. I’ll be honest with you that every area has its own little different little differences and in special places, and the food. You got to crab cakes up in the Maryland area in the wingman, you got your lobster you got down south. You got the barbecue in the Texas, you got the steaks. I can tell I like to eat.

[00:11:15] Jake White: Dude, that’s so good.

[00:11:17] Rodney Poole: When I get there, they tell me because they go out to eat. They tell me where the spots are. So I’m making a point. But people tell you, I love working with young people. I think it kind of keeps me up a little bit.

[00:11:31] Jake White: That’s so cool. Because I mean, you probably have this too is when you’re going, when you’re traveling. People think that it’s really glamorous, and a lot of times we’re working with a school and then we go back to the hotel. It’s not glamorous. The highlight is actually doing the work and impacting students and meeting them. But what I started doing this year, and it’s cool to hear that you have. Like, you’re a foodie, you’re looking for a good spot, because that’s part of the experience of traveling wherever you go. And mine has been playing Frisbee golf. So I’ll bring a couple of the discs, and I look for some courses. And apart from the food, that’s the thing that makes it an adventure for me where it’s not like, I got to spend time in the hotel. After work, I’m gonna get to go explore a little bit and it makes it more fun.

[00:12:30] Rodney Poole: I mean, getting stuck in that and airports over canceled flights, delays hotels situations, all that stuff. The work makes it worthwhile. Honestly, like I said, sometimes getting there is fun, but it can be tiring and physically demanding. But the work makes it all worthwhile. I’d say when I get a feedback from a kid and they say, as a result of you come in Mr. Poole, I’m really going to reevaluate vaping. I knew something was wrong with it. But you kind of nailed it. You kind of presented>. You pull the curtain back. And I realized now it’s not all fun and games, it’s not as harmless as it was advertised. I’m on a high all the way home when that happens. And that happens frequently. Jake, students like you gotta go for a school books you for next year before you leave the camp. It’s come by next year. It’s like doing something right.

[00:13:35] Jake White: Exactly. And you don’t always get to hear but starting to take data also really helps on what we’re doing and that stuff is super important. I’m just now learning more about that, since we have our curriculum and we’re starting to measure some of the assembly programming. And now the next part is figuring out how do we measure the sober parties? Because it’s enough to say, it’s impressive enough that 100 students or 200 are partying without alcohol, it’s keeping them safe, starting a dialogue. But is there a way to measure the broader impact of that? Just to be honest with you, my brain doesn’t love data and analytics, stuff like that. I want to have fun and play games and stuff like that. I need some partners.

“Youth Drug Prevention: Navigating Common Misconceptions and Empowering Young Minds”

[00:14:31] Rodney Poole: There’s ways of maybe doing a post party questionnaire or something. . I think there’s a talk about that. I’ve seen several of those platforms that students can just kind of go into their phone and answer a few questions after a party or maybe after our presentation. And it kind of highlights and it really breaks it down. I’ve seen it. I’ll say it shows you statistically like how many students said this was awesome? How many students said that they would do this again?

[00:15:09] Jake White: I’ve actually used that talk. And I found it was helpful. So I basically found and we have a 96% approval rating from students saying this was impactful is helpful. But I wanted more, I learned this, or I’m going to go do this now. So I’ve been experimenting with different things. Because half the time I’m gonna use talk about, half the time, I want to know this many students asked for help afterwards, or this many students understand that marijuana is harmful and addictive. So starting to get that kind of stuffs been really helpful. And I just remember the next question I wanted to ask you, is, when you’re doing this work, and you’re doing it all over. So is there something that you’ve noticed students aren’t aware of when they first meet you? Like they’ve got this false belief, maybe? And then you can help educate them on something that’s true. What’s something that you think in this generation? Where we are right now in this student bodies? They actually don’t understand this, or they’re struggling with this?

[00:16:23] Rodney Poole: I’ll tell you, social media has really did a job on this generation, it’s not lost, and all is not lost. I really don’t believe that, I think what we need to do is kind of take a step back, kind of pump the brakes a little bit, and let’s figure out how we can get back to the importance of face to face interaction, the importance of getting outside doing physical activities, the importance of minimizing or using social media as the tool that it’s a very powerful tool. That’s how we connected through social media. I do a presentation on social media. And in my presentation, I talked about some of the dangers of spending too much time on it. It’s amazing. I had no idea. The same people who worked at Las Vegas to keep people playing slot machines work for social media companies. There are some social media executives that don’t let their kids use social media. It’s like, why is that when you designed it, you work in the industry, but you won’t let your kids use it. That’s saying something to me. I think we overall parents need to be having conversations and encouraging kids to minimize their use, whether I’ve met a few kids do you have, I didn’t even have smartphones, they had phones that can get in contact with people and kids could text and interact with a certain approved group of people. But it wasn’t like a device that has everything on it without any restrictions. So I share with kids, I show up in a shirt and tie. That’s just my own thing. I love suits. I love being appearing professional. It’s part of my training. But I also let kids know that I’ve got scars on the inside that you can’t see. I might be articulate whatever. But four to five, the people I used to use drugs with in high school have all died. We weren’t really good friends. The one thing we had in common was drugs. That was it. They weren’t a lot, they weren’t very fun to be around. They weren’t very fun to hang out with. They weren’t supportive. The one thing we had in common was drugs. So I want to encourage young people to be themselves and realize alcohol, tobacco and other drugs increases the risk of future problems, even current problems. It’s not a guarantee that if you start smoking marijuana, you’re gonna become an addict. It’s not a guarantee, but it does increase the risk, especially on the teenage brain. That’s where I hang my hat on that whole idea that not only does alcohol, tobacco, other drugs get in the way of healthy human development, but you don’t have to, and not everyone’s doing it.

[00:19:19] Jake White: That’s so important to know. And it’s, it sounds like you, you go into social media, because that’s the aspect of it. You do drug prevention. You also talk a little bit about the details and the health and the research about building self-confidence. You’re taking a very holistic approach, which I love and that’s important. Because when it comes down to it, there’s like, we could talk all day about the effects of a drug. But if we don’t get to the root of the reason why students are using, we’re not really going to make an impact. So doing your work and getting the questions because I mean, you’re in the classrooms. What are some of the questions scenes that students have for you?

[00:20:02] Rodney Poole: Oh, my goodness. I’ve acquired so many over a period of years. One of the big ones is my parents drink. So how was that different? I mean, if I choose to drink a beer every once in a while, that’s one of the big ones and the research is very clear. I get from parents a lot of times, “Shouldn’t we teach our kids to drink in a, in a controlled environment?” There’s been no research that supports the idea that allowing a teenager to drink creates a responsible drinker, there is a ton of research to support just the opposite of that that allowing a teenager to drink creates a drinker or a drinking teenager. And there are so many health risks along with that there. I mean, there’s all sorts of social emotional risks. Kids, they’re all about having fun. I think that’s why you’ve been so successful. Kids want to have fun. They want to have a good time and you present that as an alternative to the other stuff. When young people get together and drink, the drinking is not social at all. Very frequent, it’s at dangerous levels. Kids don’t get together, young people don’t get together and have a beer. And stand around and eat cheese and crackers and discuss politics. That’s not how kids drink. In some cases till the death. It’s kind of scary. So I get that question very frequently, “How will I know my limits if I never test them?” And I encourage them to look at the research. The research says, “The longer you delay the onset of consumption, the lower the risk of having a problem.” You think about a 20 year old, who drinks for the first time, they’re probably not going to drink the same way as a 14 or 15 year old who’s in the basement with their buddies are drinking was who could drink the fastest the most, and you better keep up and we’re going to talk about. So I’m lucky to be here. I’m lucky to be here. That’s one of the biggest questions I get. Of course, I get what is meth, what is heroin? What is fentanyl? I get questions about things like that. I really believe for a lot of kids with the vaping, you’ve probably seen this. When it comes to vaping I’m really pulling back the curtain and showing the reality of it that we know so far, because I guarantee this stuff we don’t even know yet. But and kids are amazed. The fact that jewel was advertising on homework.com and different Nickelodeon. Why would jewel be advertising on Nickelodeon? What does that tell you about the industry? They’re coming after you. That’s what they’re telling you that they’re coming after you. They want you to be a customer because if they can get you young, we got you for years. And it’s all about the money in a lot of situation.

[00:23:12] Jake White: Absolutely. And I feel like the because of what jewel had done, and now the other vaping products, they’re benefiting from it because jewel basically got a whole generation hooked on nicotine again. So they’re reviving every one of their products, every one of their products, because I talked with my friends who are in recovery today and some of them are bad. I gave up this drug, how I’m smoking cigarettes, it’s almost like you walk down the stairs. I’m not using this one, but I’m down to the just this one now. But there’s still that dependency. And that’s what’s so scary about the parents not understanding what’s helpful for their kids is because when a teenager not only is their brain not developed yet, but their identity isn’t developed yet. So introducing the drug into that stage of life, I can easily become that thing that they grasp onto, and form an identity with when we want it to be something healthier, like that music or that club or those healthy outlets. Because we all need something to be proud of, we need something to belong to. This week actually was so cool. I was out taking our youth group to San Diego for a church youth camp. And to see some of these kids, they didn’t know anything about faith, or that realm of this life is that the unseen that faith in Jesus and how that could radically change someone’s life for the better. And introducing something like that all the great effects for the rest of the life versus introducing something like a drug and alcohol being one of those major ones, having the opposite effect. Again, like you said, we can’t guarantee anything’s going to happen but it’ll definitely introduce some problems.

[00:25:11] Rodney Poole: Drugs do work. They work until they stopped working. They may feel a need for to relieve some stress for a little while, or a social connection. If you will minimize when a person has difficulty interacting with others alcohol may help. But is it really helping? Is it really creating your identity, or if you’re not drinking, can you still socialize? I think you’re proving that you can still have a good time without alcohol. I’m really believing kids are gonna continue to buy into that. Someone has to tell them.

“Advocating for Healthy Youth Development and Drug Prevention”

[00:25:54] Jake White: Absolutely. Is there anything left that you’d like to share just about you and what you do before we head out, and I get people your contact information and stuff? But what else do we not chat about that you want to make sure to share on here?

[00:26:11] Rodney Poole: I think there is hope. And but it’s going to take conversations, it’s going to take adults being the prefrontal cortex of young people, adults, kind of have an idea that there are risks in life. And just like when you have a newborn, there are certain things you don’t let a newborn do. They’re a certain year, you’re monitoring their behavior, you’re paying attention to where are they, what’s going on with them? How are they behaving today? Do they feel irritable? Are they crying? What’s going on? Are they very quiet, more quiet than usual? I think as adults, especially caregivers, we have to be very similar, especially because that 16 year old is not yet an adult. He might be 6’2” and 250 pounds and driving. But his brain is 16 years old is still got about 10 years of development to take place. And so he needs someone to say, I don’t think that’s a good idea that you go to that party. And kids want boundaries. Young people want boundaries. And young people listen to their caregivers, even though the caregiver may not feel that they’re listening or they’re given a one word answers after school, while that’s something really difficult may have happened for them at school, and there’s their processing. So they really don’t want to talk about it right now. But continued as caregivers continue to be open, continue to be willing continue to be available, but also be vigilant and paying attention to that kid. Especially if they have a smartphone, there are so many resources out you. A kid can have we delivered to their house or to their friend’s house, and they go pick it up and they can buy it with a gift card from Walmart. I probably shouldn’t have said that, but that’s what’s happening. Drug dealers don’t care, they want the money. And if your kid has money, or has access to money, they want it and they’re willing to provide some very dangerous chemicals that are out there. I hear a lot of the drug supply now was tainted with fentanyl. A lot of the marijuana has got fentanyl and other drugs. They’re mixing stuff. It’s a very dangerous landscape right now. So I think as caregivers, caregivers really need to be vigilant and having conversations. And if you don’t know, learn, there are so many websites that are out there that you can educate yourself. So you can have not a lecture but an effective conversation or you can be a resource for information for young person. I really believe schools really need to do something. Because it makes for better students. If you have healthier students who are happy and healthy, and they really feel the school cares about them, I think that equals better students say equals healthier students, better test grades and scores and fewer fights and other situations. Illegal things going on your campus, I could talk about this stuff all day. You got to cut me off. Schools are pulling the doors off the bathrooms because of vaping and vaping is even pretty dangerous. Now, when it comes to the some of the stuff that’s actually in it. We don’t know the long term effects of it.

[00:29:29] Jake White: Rodney, I couldn’t have said it better. Students are looking for boundaries, whether it’s your caregiver, your parents, your schools, it helps give them the freedom to make their own decisions that are important to them because we’re taking off that load of the extra once, the extra decisions. And like you said, their brain isn’t fully developed. So it’s our responsibility. If you have a child, if you’re in care of someone, if you’re a teacher or a school administrator, these students are in your care. So it’s our responsibility to really set up those guidelines, and also to educate them. So if someone wants to bring you in Rodney Poole to help educate to help get things done, work with the students and do that thing that you really love and you’re really great at, how can they get to know you or get in touch with you for that?

[00:30:23] Rodney Poole: They can go to my website preventioneducationworks.com and you can see some specifics on what I cover, topics that I cover specifically. But if you want to reach out to me at my e-mail, it’s rpoole437@yahoo.com.

[00:30:42] Jake White: Alright, there you have it episode with Rodney Poole. I hope you got some valuable information from it, some things that you can translate into your community. And once again, if you need help from Rodney, reach out as I say every week. If you like the show, please give us a review. And if you want to know more about vive 18 and our sober parties like Rodney mentioned, just go to vive18.com and you can learn more. And for some of you I’ll see you at Cad come Mid-Year in Dallas in a few weeks, and we’re going to train up your students there. So we’ll catch you on another episode of Party Talk. Talk to you later.