The audience of Tom Teneyck’s presentation on local drug use walked away with information they wouldn’t find on the streets.

Teneyck, a part-time instructor at MHCC who specializes in gambling and chemical addiction, explained the physiological effects of drugs to students and staff in the College Center at noon Thursday with a special emphasis on methamphetamine use.

“I think it’s a major problem,” he said. “We’re talking about – if you want to use the word – an epidemic . . . Methamphetamine is not the kind of drug that is innocuous. People who take it get hooked and have extreme issues with it – issues that cause physical deterioration, mental deterioration that lasts all the rest of their lives.”

Teneyck explained how meth, along with other stimulants such as cocaine, Ritalin and caffeine, causes the body to produce dopamine, a happiness hormone, at accelerated rates and make it harder for the body to rid itself of the chemical. After such extended use, the body has difficulty producing dopamine and literally can’t feel happy.

Teneyck said that though the epidemic is great, such drug problems are not unique.
“The history of drug use and abuse in the world goes back as far as written and spoken history,” he said. “There’s always been in every culture some drugs that have been abused. But I think the availability, our particular culture, has made it far more ubiquitous.”

He added that in this drug culture we are learning a lot about prevention, but there are positives and negatives to that aspect. “Fewer young people doing drugs today than there were 10 years ago,” he said. “However, the bad news is that those that do do the drugs are starting at an earlier age. And we know that starting age has a lot to do with whether they end up being addicted . . . The fact that 13 is the average introduction age to marijuana right now is amazing.”

Despite his adamant attitude against drug abuse, Teneyck has no issue with the drugs themselves. “I’m not anti-drug,” he said. “I don’t believe there are any bad drugs. Every drug is dangerous to a point. There are risks in everything you take. But I don’t think there are any bad drugs. I think that’s a wrong argument. Drugs aren’t bad. Drugs can be good, but drugs can be very dangerous.”

He said that drug use depends on the person and their specific body chemistry and needs. “For some people, they have an extremely important use, but they are very dangerous for other people,” he said.

But Teneyck advises that doctors are the ones qualified to determine usability of drugs and people shouldn’t experiment themselves, especially with meth. “It’s not something that you can dip into and go out of and think you’re OK,” he said. “It’s a real killer.”