Maia Szalavitz Born : March 29, 1965 Browse All Authors Top 29 quotes by Maia Szalavitz In a criminal justice setting, it's very hard to create a therapeutic environment where people do feel safe, but the real important thing to do is to do your best to do that. Maia Szalavitz real justice people The thing we want for all our kids is that they be connected with a learning community and that they have strong social and familial relationships. If we can do whatever we can do to create that and to reduce bullying and to reduce the kind of pain and shame so many kids feel for so many reasons, that stuff is going to reduce drug addiction. Maia Szalavitz bullying pain strong If you're worried about a kid and drug use, the safest, best thing to do is individual counseling or family therapy, none of which will expose kids to more deviant or problematic peers and both of which are proven to be effective and at the very least, they won't hurt. Maia Szalavitz drug-use hurt kids The thing about our drug laws is that they're not based on science. Maia Szalavitz drug-laws drug law I know that sounds really extreme, but if you just look at the history, you will find Harry Anslinger [first U.S. commissioner of the Bureau of Narcotics] going on about satanic swing and how reefer will make black people think they're as good as white people - which to him, obviously, was a very horrible outcome. This is the basis of our drug laws. Maia Szalavitz law white thinking A lot of addiction actually ends by age 30 - something like 50 percent of all addictions with the exception of tobacco - and I think a lot of what's going on there is that the self-control areas of the brain are finally developed enough to be able to stop yourself from relapsing or just continuing. There is a maturational aspect to it as well. Maia Szalavitz addiction self thinking I think our drug laws need to be made scientifically, as best as possible, recognizing that values will always be part of that. Maia Szalavitz drug law thinking I don't have kids, but I've often noticed when people first become parents they seem to completely forget their own adolescence and they start to, as their kids become teenagers, try to do the things that didn't stop them themselves. And I jokingly frame this as: Your brain gets wiped of those memories when you become a parent. Maia Szalavitz teenager memories kids We should not be putting kids in cages and hoping that is going to fix their psychological problems of any type. Maia Szalavitz cages problem kids