LOCAL EFFORTS HELP BATTLE DRUG ABUSE

Faced with a rising number of young teens getting involved with drugs
and alcohol, the Cumberland Valley School Districts is inviting
parents to become students for a night. On the curriculum -- the ABCs
of stopping substance abuse.

"Drugs 101" on Dec. 7 will teach parents how to recognize the signs
their child may be headed for trouble -- and how to spot often
innocuous-looking drug and alcohol paraphernalia. The two-hour
program, put together with the Cumberland Valley Community Action
Committee, will also bring parents up to speed on what's out there --
from stolen prescription meds and pot to inhalants, cocaine and
heroin -- that could hurt their kids.

Then parents will be sent home with a drug testing kit, so that if
there's any doubt, they won't have to guess.

The Cumberland Valley schools have been serious about reducing teen
substance abuse for some time. High school students who participate
in activities or drive to school, for example, are entered into a
database for weekly random drug testing at school.

Even so, in the first two months of this school year, 26 students
have gone through disciplinary hearings related to substance abuse,
as compared to 56 in all of last year.

Noting that the kids in peril are getting younger, administrators are
smart to acknowledge that sometimes the parents, through lack of
information, are the last to know.

"You always want to think it's not your kid," Assistant
Superintendent Mary Riley said in a Sentinel report Sunday. "You want
to believe them."

Also on Sunday, The Sentinel reported on the new Cumberland County
Treatment Court Program, set to begin next month. An alternative to
conventional punishment through the justice system, the idea behind
the so-called "drug court" is to keep people with substance abuse
problems from repeatedly clogging the courts and the county jail by
helping them get clean once and for all.

A select group of nonviolent criminals will be offered the chance to
avoid jail if they complete a four-phase program that typically takes
about 18 months.

What is good for the offender promises to be good for Cumberland
County. Nationally, recidivism rates for drug court graduates are
between 4 and 29 percent as compared to 48 percent for
nonparticipants. It is also more directly cost effective -- a year in
jail can cost between $20,000 to $50,000 per inmate, while a drug
court alternative runs between $2,500 and $4,000.

The county program aims to change adult behavior well after an
individual problem has become a societal one. By arming parents with
information, Cumberland Valley's Drugs 101 hopes to halt the cycle of
substance abuse and crime before it gets started.

Both are necessary efforts if drug-related crime and the tragic loss
of human potential are to be reduced. And maybe if enough schools
offered programs like Cumberland Valley's, the need for a county drug
court would be lessened as well.