DRUG TESTING KITS AVAILABLE TO PARENTS

The recent seizure of nearly 500 pounds of marijuana on Interstate 80 is
the perfect example of why drug prevention programs need to start earlier
than high school, said Sarpy County Sheriff Jeff Davis.

In a press conference last week, Davis announced not only the seizure,
which took place near mile marker 441, but also a new child drug prevention
program in cooperation, initially, with the Gretna school district.

Davis said Saturday night a sheriff's deputy observed three vehicles with
Arizona license plates traveling together. The deputy stopped a beige
pick-up truck for speeding and a lane violation, but the driver ran from
the vehicle and as of last week hadn't been found. A warrant is out for the
arrest of Juan Manuel Ramirez of Casa Grande, Ariz., Davis said.

The deputy found 490 pounds of marijuana in the bed of the truck, not
hidden in any way, Davis said. Saturday's seizure is the third in a couple
of months for the sheriff's office, and by far the biggest in quite a
while. The street value of the drugs is figured at nearly a half million
dollars, he said.

The new program, funded through an approximately $15,000 grant from
www.notmykid.org, a private drug testing company, will provide testing kits
to parents of all 159 seventh-graders in the Gretna school system, and
likely the South Sarpy district as well.

"The idea behind this is that parents obviously communicate with their kids
when they receive these drug kits so it's an advantage in that respect,"
Davis. "It's a little bit of peer pressure. When your son or daughter goes
out, they know this is sitting in the cabinet and at any time you're going
to take that test kit out and have them give a sample."

Lt. Russ Zeeb of the Sarpy County Sheriff's Office wrote the grant for the
testing kits and said the sheriff's office will be working with the
Papillion-La Vista and Bellevue school districts, and each city's police
department, to distribute the testing kits in those schools as well. South
Sarpy, Davis said, has already committed to distributing the kits after the
pilot project in Gretna is complete.

Seventh-graders are the subject of the testing kits, Davis said, because
research has shown that students at that age are most prone to be
introduced to illicit drugs.

"I think the No. 1 thing is that this will cause these parents, through
these school systems, to go home and talk to their kids," he said. "It
gives the children an opportunity to say no and a reason to say no. If your
kids are out and they are presented with any illicit drug, they can say no
because they know their parents will test them when they get home."

The main idea behind the drug testing grant, Davis said, is not to jail
kids for possession or use of drugs, because that's the last thing the
county wants to do.

"We love it because you're sitting underneath a jail right now that is
overpopulated, to say the least, and we are housing 40 people elsewhere
throughout the state of Nebraska," he said at the press conference. "The
predominant thing here isn't only drugs, but part of it is drugs,
methamphetamine and other drugs. We need to address that at an earlier age.
If you can get these kids into treatment and otherwise take care of that
problem, I guarantee you in the long run that's going to free up beds and
that's the only way that's going to free up beds."

The testing kits are good for only one test, Davis said, but the hope is
that parents will recognize the mere presence of a kit in the home as a
deterrent and go out and purchase additional kits once the free one has
been used.

"By the next day, if it was me, I would have another one sitting on the
shelf," he said.

The drug testing kits will be introduced to Gretna parents at the
methamphetamine seminar scheduled for 7 p.m. at Gretna High School on Sept.
7. Parents of Gretna seventh-graders will receive the kits then and Zeeb
said any parents who can't attend can call the sheriff's office for their
free kit.