TIME TO TALK ABOUT DRUGS:

Red Ribbons are reminders to be frank with kids

During his last few days alive, undercover agent Enrique "Kiki"
Camarena was beaten and tortured as his captors pried confidential
information out of the 37-year-old. The DEA agent cried and moaned in
pain, begging for the blows to stop, asking the drug traffickers to
spare his wife and three young children, ages 4, 6 and 11.

Kiki's body was found in a shallow grave a month after he was
kidnapped in Guadalajara, Mexico, just as he was closing in on an
undercover operation that involved one of the country's biggest drug
lords. His skull was shattered.

That was 20 years ago, but Kiki's memory and his fight against drugs
are still very much alive. Shortly after his death, residents of his
hometown of Calexico, Calif., began wearing red ribbons to honor
Kiki's sacrifices. Before long, Red Ribbon Week spread to schools,
where every October, administrators and teachers drive home the
anti-drug message.

Home. That's actually the key. While it is important for teachers to
continue talking to our children about drugs, parents also have a
responsibility to answer some of those questions. After all, parents
are a child's first teacher and role model.

Kids are never too young to hear about the perils of drug use,
starting with adults talking to the youngest elementary students about
the harmful effects of cigarettes and alcohol. That's exactly what
teachers will be doing this week during Red Ribbon Week. Parents, you
would be wise to use those school discussions to prime the
communications pipeline at home between you and your children -
whether 6 or 16.

Encourage your kids to ask questions and tell you what they think
about what they're learning. Tell them about Kiki and how he didn't
get to see his own children grow up or graduate from high school.

This week is also the perfect time to explain to your kids the concept
of supply and demand: If fewer kids were using drugs in the U.S.,
their flow across the border - and the horrific deaths that so often
accompany that illegal trade - would be considerably staunched.