WESTHAMPTON — When Joseph Shrand visited Hampshire Regional High School this week, he wasn’t trying to scare kids away from using drugs. Instead, he sought to change their perceptions around drug use, and give them knowledge they might use one day to save a life.

“Scaring kids out of using has never worked,” Shrand told the Gazette. “Education, I think, is the key.”

But Shrand knows that audiences are unlikely to have a mindset shift from simply watching a lecture listing off statistics about drug use. Instead, the psychiatrist brings together neuroscience, an acting background from his childhood appearances on the PBS show “Zoom,” and the stories of real young people who have struggled with addiction to create an immersive learning experience called “Drug Story Theater.”

Through Drug Story Theater, Shrand shared his medical expertise with the help of a troupe of young adults who have experienced their own journeys with addiction. These amateur actors and playwrights offer glimpses into their own experience with drugs by acting them out onstage — from the seemingly innocuous moment someone first decides to try drugs, to the harrowing experience of witnessing an overdose at a party.

The group’s members are all from Massachusetts, and offer only their first names, which provides them some privacy as they share these vulnerable moments in their lives.

Shrand said that one of the ideas behind these shows is that “kids who have more knowledge are less likely to give their brains away.” He and his actors reminded the auditorium full of Hampshire Regional high schoolers that, at their age, one in four individuals is at risk of addiction or drug-related fatality. However, speaking to the audience on Tuesday, National Fentanyl Awareness Day, Shrand said that every single person is at risk when it comes to fentanyl.

Because of the immense risk posed by fentanyl, especially when discretely added into the pressed pills often taken recreationally at parties, the group focused not only on dissuading teens from using drugs, but also on potentially life-saving harm reduction.

Life-saving awareness

In a play performed at Hampshire Regional and written by one of its members, Heather, the group depicted a party where one friend suddenly slumps over in an overdose.

“He’s not breathing,” one actor shouted in alarm.

“Oh my god, he’s turning blue,” another said as the actor recreating the overdose collapsed into her.

The events, and what happened next, were entirely true. Heather explained that the play was extremely hard for her to write, because she had to relive the night she thought her friend would die. The only reason he made it out alive was because one partygoer had a box of Narcan on hand.

Narcan, the common brand name for the opioid overdose reversal medication naloxone, is administered by being sprayed up the nose of someone experiencing an overdose. The group explained that the medication works by “kicking off” the opioids from the brain’s receptors, binding to them in the drug’s place. This effect can mean the difference between life and death.

In Heather’s play, the Narcan saved her friend from his overdose, but because of the amount of potent opioids in his system, he soon went limp again, needing another dose of the medication. This is not an uncommon occurrence, which is why it is important to do something the friends in the play were too afraid to: call 911. While a second dose of Narcan saved Heather’s friend, some cases require more care.

Heather and her friends were afraid to call law enforcement because they had all been doing drugs, and had given her friend the drugs that were responsible for his overdose. Since that night, which triggered her journey to recovery, she has learned that she and her friends wouldn’t have gotten in trouble. The actors explained to the students gathered before them that, in the case of an overdose, they should always call emergency services first and foremost — they will not be prosecuted, but someone’s life could be saved by that simple action.

Shrand and the actors encouraged students to acquire Narcan — which can be obtained for free at many pharmacies in the commonwealth, and even the district attorney’s office — to keep on them in the case of an emergency.

But even before an emergency arises, Shrand explained that people can work toward addiction prevention simply by reaching out and making others feel valued. A common denominator in the beginning of addiction, he said, is low self-esteem.

“The common thread that binds human beings is that we just want to feel valued by someone else,” he said. Receiving a few kind words can increase levels of oxytocin in the brain, he added, which can go a surprisingly long way in keeping someone from seeking that feeling in more dangerous ways.

“Addiction is not about morality, it’s about mortality,” he said.

The impact of stories

After the show, students got the chance to ask questions and speak directly to the actors about their experiences with addiction and recovery.

One student, Bridget Sullivan, approached an actor named Alex to thank her for sharing the story of how she began drinking at just 6 years old to escape the distress of her home situation.

“Hearing her story and how early she started using, it almost made me cry … it was powerful,” Sullivan said.

Another student, Chelsea Vanasse, said that while she already knew about using Narcan, she still found a great deal of value in hearing the group’s stories.

Similarly, student Emma Erickson said her family has started keeping Narcan on hand because of her aunt’s struggles with heroin. She said that it’s been difficult “having to deal with it and eventually realizing that we can’t help her unless she wants it.”

Erickson expressed that she was glad Drug Story Theater is working to raise awareness that could help people like her aunt. And Erickson isn’t alone — at the beginning of the show, Shrand asked the audience to raise their hands if they knew someone impacted by the opioid crisis. About a dozen students raised their hands.

“One hand is too many,” Shrand said as he looked out at the crowd.

However, he is hopeful that Drug Story Theater can positively impact both the actors on their sobriety journeys, as well as young audiences throughout the state. As he likes to say, “the treatment of one becomes the prevention of many.”