Jermaine Galloway, “The Tall Cop,” speaks at the Warsaw Performing Arts Center during his “High In Plain Sight: Substance Abuse Prevention Training” event Monday, Nov. 7. Photo by Jackie Gorski, Times-Union.

By Jackie Gorski
Times-Union

WARSAW – Jermaine Galloway helps people understand the biggest types of drugs he’s seen and tools to help in the country’s drug problem.

Galloway, “The Tall Cop,” spoke at the Warsaw Performing Arts Center during his “High In Plain Sight: Substance Abuse Prevention Training” event Monday, Nov. 7.

One of the top drugs Galloway talked about was Delta 8.

Delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol is a psychoactive cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant. There are some side effects to the synthesized form of weed, including seizures and psychosis. 

He also said concentrates are concentrated forms of weed. Every state that has legalized recreational forms of weed has legalized concentrates. 

He also talked about Salt Nicotine, which is a stronger form of nicotine and is more addictive.

Fentanyl is stronger than heroin. The supply is up and the reason, he said, is because people build up a tolerance to a drug and then switch to something else.

He said the drugs are not the same thing now as they used to be as they’re more concentrated now. The products are not the same – oftentimes they’re manipulated and they’re stronger.

He said more accessibility to a product leads to more use of a product. By having more dispensaries, it allows more access to weed. He said the idea of making something more available and trying to limit it is ridiculous.

He said drugs are not the only cause of the ills of society, but said they are a major cause. If society is not addressing its drug issues, then its not addressing its depression, suicides and self-medication issues.

He said drug issues are going to get worse, not better. 

When asked if the drugs in the U.S. are coming from other countries, Galloway said yes and no. He said most of the drugs in the country are made in the U.S. Most of the fentanyl, however, is coming from Mexico. Before that, it was coming from China. 

As far as kids doing drugs, he said about 60% of kids will say they use or tried drugs, while 28% of parents say their kids use drugs. He said most parents don’t want to think their kids do drugs.

There were some tools Galloway suggested using to help address drug questions and issues. He suggested people pay attention to what’s going on in their own community. 

He also suggested parents ask their children questions without necessarily teaching them about drugs by asking more questions and let the child lead the conversation. If they don’t know about drugs today, they’ll know about it tomorrow because there are conversations at school every day, he said. Parents have to be careful of how they word the question, but let the child lead the conversation.

“Your kids will know more about drugs than you, they always will,” he said. That doesn’t mean people can’t use common sense to figure things out. 

He said if Indiana wanted to reduce vaping in kids, vapes should be priced so kids can’t afford them.

He also said school suspensions cannot be the only tool to help students.

He suggested laws can be passed to help in the drug problem. One thing people have to remember is, even if everything got banned now, there’s still a supply that gets to get sold for months. 

He also suggested training for nurses and hospitals to handle drug issues. 

Another tool to help is for different organizations to work together. 

“That’s what we’re seeing happening in our court system. It’s called drug court,” he said.