CRACK HEADS GONE WILD PROGRAM BRINGS ISSUES ABOUT DRUGS TO THE FOREFRONT

National Pan-Hellenic Council Sponsors Educational Event

Students got the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of individuals
suffering from drug addictions through a documentary called "Crack
Heads Gone Wild."

Crack Heads Gone Wild was also the title of the program in which the
documentary was shown.

The program allowed the audience to view the movie and then engage in
a panel discussion with representatives from the ECU Police
Department and Student Health Services.

The event began at 6 p.m. with a welcome from Sheree Hawthorne,
president of National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC).

The event was sponsored by NPHC, which includes eight of the nine
historically African American Greek organizations. ECU doesn't have a
chapter of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.

Shawntee McMillan of Student Health Services followed Hawthorne by
giving statistics about the introduction and evolution of cocaine and
averages of cocaine usage among college students.

About 8 percent of college students have tried cocaine, according to
statistics from 2005-2006 from the Office of National Drug Control
Policy Web site.

A large amount of Americans have experimented with cocaine. According
to the Web site, 35.3 million Americans age 12 and older have used
cocaine at least once in their lives.

McMillan also shared a personal story about her fathers struggle with
drugs and the effect it had on his life.

The documentary connected viewers with the reality of drug usage by
showing people smoking cocaine, and talking about how the addiction
has affected their lives.

The people featured in the movie told stories about how they lost
material possessions as well as friends and family during their
battle with the addiction to cocaine.

Unfortunately, some of the users also admitted that they live from
day to day thinking of ways to get money for more drugs and don't
plan to quit smoking. Some even seemed proud that they smoked cocaine.

The documentary also showed the inside of a "crack" house to
illustrate where some of the users lived.

The house shown had rooms covered in filth and trash, no furniture,
and didn't have clean bathrooms. In fact, the movie showed defecation
on the walls of one of the rooms.

The idea for the event came about by members of NPHC as a way to
represent the truth about the consequences of using drugs.

"I truly believe that the seriousness of drug addiction has been
masked by comedy and humor which gives all of us a false sense of
understanding," said Eric Anthony, secretary/chaplin of NPHC.

"This programs intention was to educate our student population here
on ECU's campus about the seriousness and dangers of substance abuse."

Members of NPHC think that the program opened up people's eyes to the
need of helping those that face these kinds of problems.

"I honestly think this movie made people see the bigger picture of
how we need to reach out and help people with these problems," Anthony said.

"The only way to alleviate this situation is to reach out and help
the people in your community."

No other programs such as this one have been confirmed but there are
discussions about bringing more pressing issues such as this one to the light.