Print this story |
E-mail story |
This story has 1 comment Add your own |
iPod friendly | Bookmark this
What is this?
Students need to know the facts
Published Wednesday, October 28, 2009
What's Your Opinion?
We’d like to share your thoughts and opinions with the greater Lake Martin community. It’s free and it only takes a few moments of your time. We have two ways to get your opinion in print: letters to the editor and guest columns. The main difference is length. Letters to the editor are up to 250 words, while guest columns can be up to 500 words. Letters and columns may be sent to P.O. Box 999, Alexander City, AL 35011, faxed to (256) 234-6550, e-mailed to editor@alexcityoutlook.com or click here. Please include your name, address, e-mail address and phone number. Send us your thoughts today!
More than half of Alexander City teens are getting high from prescription drugs by the end of their freshman year of high school, according to a survey of Alexander City Middle School students.
“About 60 percent of teenagers try prescription or over-the-counter drugs in order to get their first high by age 15,” ACMS counselor Misty Wade told The Outlook, quoting the survey the school gives each year.
That’s an astounding statistic and it makes events designed to spread awareness about illegal drug use – like Red Ribbon Week going on now – even more important.
Officers from the Alexander City Police Department and Tallapoosa County Narcotics Task Force are working this week to educate children about illegal drug use and why they should abstain from using them.
Talking to the kids before they reach high school is important for prevention to work, according to the officers.
“They’re still young kids but they want to be young adults,” Deputy Chief Willie Robinson said of the middle school students.
Using illegal drugs is one way many youngsters test authority, and make themselves feel like they’re “adults.”
Unfortunately, many prescription drugs require doctor supervision and adult understanding. Misusing them or mixing them with other drugs and alcohol can be a fatal mistake.
We applaud our law officers for educating our children about drugs and the potential consequences of abusing them.
As evidenced by this poll, it is important for all students to at least know what these drugs are and how they can affect them … before a they make a bad decision.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?
Comments
Posted by Anonymous2 (anonymous) on October 30, 2009 at 7:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If using prescription drugs illegally as a middle schooler to imitate adults, that means the parents also use them. From the parents learn the children. How very sad your town has become. Why don't you put these young offenders in a detention facility so they can really feel like adults.
There's a girl whose chose child attends one of your schools. She dresses him like a ghetto gang member to go to school, is against dress codes (as she said in her letter to the editor back in June) because he's "Heavy Set" (another word for obese, which is another problem in this country) and gives him a page on the internet with a photo of a naked woman and put his age at 30+, but shows his picture as a 10 or 11 yr old. This is WHY our kids think it's okay. Mothers like that should have complete hysterectomies by the time they're 15.
Something is wrong with the current Generation X group. Mind blowing, really.
Ms. Rae Weaton
Post a comment (Terms of Use Policy)
(Requires free registration.)