BROOKINGS – The anti-pornography nonprofit Fight the New Drug (FTND) is hosting a free event in Brookings next month.

Starting at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, at Cinema 8 is a screening of the documentary “Brain, Heart, World.” A question-and-answer session afterward, from noon-1 p.m., will be held with an official FTND representative.

This screening and discussion are a part of FTND’s documentary tour that spans across the United States. The event is open to all ages.

Fight the New Drug is a non-profit that promotes the awareness of the detriments to pornography addiction and how it is linked to sex trafficking. 

“Fight the New Drug is a non-religious and non-legislative organization that exists to provide individuals the opportunity to make an informed decision regarding pornography by raising awareness on its harmful effects using only science, facts and personal accounts,” according to the FTND website.

FTND speaker and representative Parker Hymas will be the host for the documentary event in Brookings.

“(Parker) felt strongly that he could really make an impact in the lives of young people. So he set out to get an education from Utah Valley University in speech communication. During that process he saw the #PornKillsLove campaign on Facebook and decided that he wanted to become a fighter,” according to the FTND website. “Now he uses his passion for speaking to help raise awareness on the harmful effects of pornography through science, facts and personal accounts.”

The application to bring the FTND event to Brookings was submitted by National Guard member, Brookings Police officer and volunteer FTND fighter Jorrie Hart.

“I had somebody close to me, a friend, open up about their struggle with porn addiction one day, and honestly, I’d never heard of that before,” Hart said. “I didn’t know that could actually be an addiction. So, I questioned them on that, because to me, I thought of an addiction as having something that chemically altered your brain.”

From there, Hart wanted to help her friend and discovered FTND and became a volunteer fighter. She now runs her own Facebook page, working with others on promoting pornography addiction awareness. Her page can be found at @FTNDBrookingsSD.

Research on FTND website says pornography is parallel in comparison to substance abuse and addiction. Pornography use and addiction promotes the objectification of individuals and creates a compulsory need by the individual watching it, according to the FTND website. It snowballs into the individual’s livelihood of objectifying others and leading to more intense pornography and the need for it, and the addiction has been shown to have the same mental imagery/response as someone who uses cocaine.

The organization began in 2009 by co-founder and president Clay Olsen and group of friends when they were in college. The organization has now grown into an internationally recognized movement with almost 5 million social media followers and subscribers.

According to Olsen, FTND is an organization that is not religiously or morally affiliated, and the organization does not have an official political agenda. It “respects that an individual has the right to develop their own stance on the topic of pornography,” and FTND does not shame anyone who uses pornography.

That being said, FTND does promotes peer-reviewed scientific research on the effects of pornography. FTND is “sex-positive,” meaning that it believes healthy sexual relationships are not founded on or by pornography. 

According to the FTND website, there are “35 neuroscience-based studies using a variety of brain imaging technologies (MRI, fMRI, EEG, etc.) that provide solid support for the reality of internet porn addiction.”

There is also substantial – and growing – research and accounts about how pornography and sex trafficking are connected. The increasing demand and viewing of pornography is directly related to the growth and demand for sex trafficking, especially those of minors, according to FTND.

For more information about Fight the New Drug, visit www fightthenewdrug.org or find the organization on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Contact Matthew Rhodes at mrhodes@brookingsregister.com.