SHERIFF KEEPS STUDENT PROGRAM

Anti-drug Message Stays Despite Budget

The Gwinnett Sheriff's Department will continue to run drug awareness
programs in the county's 52 elementary schools despite budget
constraints, department officials said.

Seven sheriff's deputies currently run ADVANCE, or Avoiding Drugs,
Violence and Negative Choices Early, a 10-week program administered to
fifth-graders that details the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

"We have no intention of handing the program off to another agency,"
Chief Deputy Wayne Bolden said Friday. "If we shift the issue
elsewhere, we won't be helping anyone."

Gwinnett Sheriff Butch Conway has said that keeping the program afloat
with a shortage in deputies will be a struggle, but Bolden said the
program is worth the effort.

"It's something we enjoy running, and something we believe really
helps the kids," he said.

ADVANCE, which replaced the controversial anti-drug program DARE, was
created in 1997.

County Commission Chairman Wayne Hill last month suggested that the
Sheriff's Department relinquish responsibility for the program.

Hill gave Conway the option of shifting the deputies running ADVANCE
to other critical staffing needs.

Hill said the county Police Department, which originally ran DARE,
would take over the anti-drug program.

"We [county police] had it before, we'll take it again," Hill said.
"We certainly don't intend for it to stop."

Since its inception, ADVANCE deputies have spoken to 31,000
students.

In his 2002 budget request, Conway requested 47 more deputies and
seven civilians --- including an extra deputy for ADVANCE. He received
funding for only four deputies.

ADVANCE replaced DARE, which local officials believed was too
restrictive and too rigid in its 17-week curriculum.