YOUNGER GENERATION AT STAKE IN WAR ON DRUGS

When it comes to the war on drugs, our schools are on the front
lines.

Parents, teachers, school administrators, guidance counselors and
various organizations are fighting to keep youths from becoming
addicts every day.

Although their efforts do make a difference, all indications are that
this fight is becoming tougher every year.

Tammy Daneker, of Valley Prevention Services in Williamsport, recently
spoke to Sullivan County School District parents about how drugs are
becoming more powerful and are affecting students at younger ages.

Marijuana use, for example, used to be something that occurred in a
student's late high school or early college years.

Now, middle school students are trying marijuana and many are becoming
addicts.

Furthermore, the marijuana available in today's drug market is much
more potent than previous generations of the drug. It delivers a much
more intense high and is even more addictive.

In many Central and Northeastern Pennsylvania counties, Daneker said,
students are also regularly using heroin, dangerous inhalants,
designer drugs such as ecstasy, crack cocaine and other narcotics that
could lure them into addiction and destroy their lives.

Locally, authorities say a methamphetamine epidemic is gripping many
residents, including teen-agers who have been known to not only use
the drug, but to manufacture and distribute it as well.

The bottom line is that the war on drugs is something we as a society
must dedicate ourselves to fighting.

It's a fact that drug addiction ruins marriages, causes job loss,
destroys relationships with family and friends, leads people into a
life of crime and can result in fatal overdoses.

We believe that the war on drugs is worth fighting in order to save
people of all ages from such a fate.

And one way we can win the war is to keep our youths from becoming
addicts, thus preventing them from becoming the new recruits needed to
keep drug dealers in business.

To do this, parents must take an active interest in what their
children are doing and who they are hanging around with.

Parents must openly communicate with their children and do everything
it takes to keep them from falling victim to drug abuse.

Any signs of drug abuse spotted by a peer, parent or any other person
in a child's life should be taken very seriously.

When a youth does fall victim to drug abuse, he or she must receive
the emotional support, counseling and rehabilitation needed to get
back to a clean lifestyle.

When most of us think of the war on drugs, images of Drug Enforcement
Agency raids in big cities and Central American soldiers destroying
drug-producing plants might be the first images that come to mind.

In reality, the war on drugs is not something going on a world away or
in urban America.

It's being fought right here in rural America and Smalltown
USA.

It's being fought by parents, teachers, guidance counselors, school
officials and rehabilitation experts as well as the kids themselves.

And it's worth fighting because it's not just about putting drug
dealers behind bars.

It's about saving our younger generation, so our boys and girls will
be able to build a brighter future and make the world a better place.

The war on drugs therefore must be fought and must be won.