Herkimer College will host a presentation titled, “Marijuana and the Effects on the Brain,” by Michael Nerney, a substance abuse prevention and education consultant. The presentation will be held Tuesday, May 2, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Robert McLaughlin College Center, room 288. The event is free and open to the public.
Nerney is former director of the Training Institute of Narcotic and Drug Research, Inc., where he was responsible for the management of a statewide training system which delivered more than 450 training programs to substance abuse treatment and prevention professionals annually. Nerney wrote and was awarded a federal grant under the Youth-At-Risk Act, to design and deliver training programs for residential facilities within the state Division for Youth. Nerney’s areas of expertise include psycho-pharmacology, adolescent chemical dependency, relapse prevention, gender differences in communication, and managing violent incidents.
Nerney’s understanding of adolescent issues is drawn from 12 years as a teacher and coach at the junior high and high school levels, including three years with the Adirondack Mountain School, a residential school for boys. He also worked in the chemical dependency field as a substance abuse counselor and director of the Drug Abuse Prevention Council in Hamilton County before joining the staff of NDRI in 1984. He is a certified instructor in violence prevention and management with the Crisis Prevention Institute. Nerney recently served as the consultant in the development of the learning centers for the Eckert Drug Quiz Show in New York state. He has been a consultant for two of the major television networks and has appeared on the ABC program 20/20.
Nerney is an internationally known lecturer, and has served as consultant to a number of federal and state agencies, including the Federal Office of Substance Abuse Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Office of National Drug Control Policy, state Education Department, Department of Social Services, Division for Youth, Department of Correctional Services, Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives, Division of Parole, Division of Criminal Justice Services, Capital Defender’s Office and Governor’s Office of Employee Relations.