DRIVING HOME DRUG MESSAGE

Don't do drugs.

How many times will kids hear the same message in their young lives by
adults who don't seem to have any concept of the issue they are dealing with.

Eventually, it becomes white noise in the general chaos locked out and ignored.

Sometimes it takes a hard lesson to bring it back home and a tough teacher
who knows from where she speaks to nail in the message.

The hard lesson came last month, when Daniel Drouin, 19, and Andrew
Tessier, 17, died after overdosing on MS Contin.

The tough teacher was introduced last week at area high schools. Debbie
Gillis, a former addict, began the first day of her three-day tour of area
high schools, telling students her story and how she overcame all odds to
break a cycle of self-destruction that began at a very, very young age.

Her story, unfortunately, is not so uncommon to be unique.

In our pleasure-seeking culture, where drugs are often seen as the
glamourous answer to our blues or boredom, abuse has become commonplace.

A recent series investigated and published by The Daily Press revealed how
simple it is for addicts to feed their addictions, even to prescription
medicine, which is supposed to be controlled.

And the problem is not happening on city streets far from home or in dingy
apartments where we'll never likely set foot.

It's a problem at home, in our schools and in our playgrounds.

Users and addicts are getting younger and younger.

In fact, joining Gillis on stage Tuesday were a handful of young people who
have been through similar damaging experiences one of them Gillis's own
17-year-old daughter, another recovering addict.

And joining in the testimonials at times were students from the audiences
with their own stories of collapse and recovery.

With so many young people echoing the same sad tales and passing on their
lessons learned, education rises.

And the more they are aware of the problem, the better prepared they are,
and we are, to conquer it.

Drugs used to be an escape for Gillis.

Then they became the prison.

On the heels of the deaths of two teens, that's a message that hits us
where we need it.

This is no white noise.

This is reality.