ISLANDER PROMOTES DRUG EDUCATION

Hilton Head Island's children are well-versed in the culture and climate of
illegal drugs.

That was the message islander Larry McElynn brought to the Hilton Head
Island Rotary Club's luncheon Thursday at the Port Royal Clubhouse.

But McElynn, retired head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's
Philadelphia Division, also offered some help.

"I'm hoping that in the next three to five years, we can start a corporate
alliance for drug education," McElynn told the group.

The organization would be similar to the Philadelphia nonprofit McElynn was
active in while working for the DEA. Philadelphia's Corporate Alliance for
Drug Education combines corporate donations with some government grants and
functions as the only anti-drug program in the city's schools.

McElynn would like to see a smaller-scale alliance formed in southern
Beaufort County. He learned about the need for such an effort while
teaching drug awareness classes for ninth-graders on the island this past
school year.

When he retired as DEA agent-in-charge in Philadelphia in 1999, McElynn
told the Philadelphia Inquirer he planned to become involved in anti-drug
programs for children.

McElynn found out during presentations he gave last fall that the island's
children knew about drugs such as heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy, marijuana and
methamphetamine. They knew how much it costs, how to use it and where to
get it, he told the Rotary luncheon.

"I had 14-year-olds tell me they could get those drugs pretty much any time
they wanted on the island," he said.

McElynn and Healthy Communities Initiative helped secure a grant of about
$15,000 from the Arthur Blank Foundation to fund a drug awareness program
this school year for all ninth-graders and seniors on Hilton Head, as well
as H.E. McCracken Middle School students in Bluffton. The program will
include about 40 sessions for students, and about 10 sessions for a group
of parents, McElynn said.

A corporate alliance for drug education could bring permanency to the
program the Arthur Blank Foundation is funding this year, McElynn said.

"It takes time to do this," McElynn told the Rotarians about starting the
alliance. "But over the next five years, someone may be knocking on your
door, asking for help."

Dianne Garnett, Community Foundation of the Lowcountry president, said a
partnership between businesses and organizations such as hers could help
bring McElynn's idea to life.

"We need to help youth make decisions that are going to give them
opportunities," Garnett said after the Rotary luncheon, "and not put up
barriers."

McElynn, who served as chief of the DEA's Drug Investigation Division with
Interpol, the worldwide law enforcement organization, said about 40 percent
of children who are given the opportunity to use illegal drugs will do so.
But he said he worries about the other 60 percent of kids being harmed by
their intoxicated peers.

McElynn said the illegal drug trade is marked by four elements: strong
demand, quality drugs, ready availability, and low and steady prices.

"These are the characteristics in society today," McElynn said, "and on
Hilton Head Island today."