RED RIBBON WEEK: STUDENTS DISCUSS EFFECTS OF METH USE

It's Red Ribbon Week at Central High School in Phenix
City.

A wrecked car sits outside the school, surrounded by police tape and
beer bottles. Inside the front hall there is a display table with
information pamphlets on a wide variety of illegal drugs -- cocaine,
marijuana, meth. Teen Challenge even brought a former drug user to the
school to talk about how drugs ruined her life.

Mostly, the students are talking about meth, the subject of this
week's Red Ribbon Week series in the Ledger-Enquirer.

Students at Central and also at Spencer High in Columbus told
reporters this week that while meth may not be the most popular drug
among high school students -- marijuana and alcohol are easier to
obtain -- it is a local problem.

"It's big in Georgia, meth use," said Rachel Cotterell, a junior at
Spencer.

Rachel said they've been talking in classes lately about how meth can
destroy a person.

Danielle Davis, a senior at Central, said she thinks there is a low
percentage of students at the school who are drug users but that's
still probably too many. Others agreed.

"There are students here who do meth and a lot more," said Alex
Harrell, a Central sophomore. "I feel bad for them."

At Central, one teacher has an anti-cocaine poster in her room
featuring a boy sticking a gun barrel up his nose.

Images of meth

She also has a clipping from the Ledger-Enquirer's Red Ribbon report
five years ago, featuring the six stages of meth and showing head
shots of a woman and how meth use changed the way she looked.

"She looked so nasty," Alex said.

Students at Spencer agreed, saying the images of meth users as walking
skeletons with decaying teeth and scabby skin keep them away.

"Malnourished, lack of food -- lack of everything in your life," said
sophomore Alexander Stephan. "You look really disgusting."

The billboards and commercials from the Georgia Meth Project, a
large-scale prevention program aimed at reducing meth use, also help
keep students away from the drug.

"They scare you straight," said junior Samanthan Love.

James Mathews, a Central High senior, said the advertisements "need to
be graphic" because that's the way to reach people.

"People need to see just how bad meth use can be," he
said.

Other students take notice of news about meth lab busts. Alexander
recalled reading about a recent bust in Phenix City where
investigators found a baby inside the lab.

"I was like, was that baby born in a meth lab?" Alexander said.
"That's terrible. How can people do that?"

Views on alcohol, marijuana

Students may see meth as dangerous, but they don't feel the same way
about other drugs, like marijuana and alcohol, students said.

"Weed is a lot easier to get," James said. "It's everywhere."

Danielle and Alex said alcohol still probably tops the list of drug
use and that they have heard talk of parents drinking with their children.

Spencer junior Christopher Brown said alcohol is seen as a drug for
fun, and that marijuana isn't considered dangerous -- "it's grown from
the earth."

Alex said that "peer pressure" is the main reason for trying the
drugs.

"Some say they'll never use it but then they do," he said. "Good
students can go bad. Their life changes."

Jonathan Wallace, a Central junior, said that at parties you can tell
the ones using drugs.

"They're usually out of control," he said. "We make fun of
them."

Jonathan said he's seen drug-dealing near where he
lives.

"It's everywhere," he said. He and the others say they would try to
talk a friend out of using or dealing drugs.

While not saying it's useless to talk to teens, Danielle said the
younger children are the ones who need to get the message.

"You've got to get the drug message to kids as soon as possible," she
said.