STUDENTS HEAR ANTI-DRUG MESSAGE

First Lt. Arthur Gaines III has served more than 17 years in the
Army, fighting for his country and now he's helping with another fight.

The 35-year-old travels across the Big Bend talking to students
about the dangers of drugs and, more importantly, how to make better
decisions.

Gaines is the commander of the 144th Transportation Company in
Marianna and speaker for the Florida Army National Guard's Drug
Demand Reduction Program. He presented his message to a group of 20
teenagers and adults Tuesday evening at an annual meeting sponsored
by the Military Order of the World Wars.

In his travels, Gaines said he always runs into one child who thinks
marijuana is "OK."

He said most of them don't know there's a difference between the
substance found on the streets and the one prescribed from a doctor
until he tells them.

"I don't like to tell them, 'Don't do drugs," Instead, he said, he
wants to give them the facts and support they need to make the
decision on their own regarding the consequences of drugs.

"That way, the choice is totally up to them," he said.

Daniel Wagner, 17, a cadet captain in the Marine Corps Junior
Reserve Officer Training Corps at Leon High School, listened closely
to Gaines and said he may share some of the messages he heard to
younger cadets in a class he teaches.

Anber Little, a junior at North Florida Christian School, said she
knows of teenagers abusing "substances" and she felt like some of
them should have been at the reception.

"They need to learn about what's going to happen to them and how bad
it is for them," Anber, 15, said.

Gaines earned his bachelor's degree in health information management
from Florida A&M University. He has 13 years of enlisted military
service and four years of commissioned service.