SCHOOL OFFICER OUTLINES RISKS OF DOING DRUGS

FLORENCE - More than 100 eighth-graders at Weeden Middle School sat for
nearly 45 minutes on a hard gym floor Friday afternoon listening as police
officer Rolando Bogran warned them about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

Bogran, a former narcotics officer now working as Weeden's school resource
officer, shared a personal story about a friend and former co-worker he
knew from his bartending days in the mid-'80s.

The man started off buying $50 of cocaine at the beginning of the night.
Then $100, then his habit grew until he was buying $100 at the beginning
and end of the night. Then, he progressed to stealing money from the cash
register. Since then, the man has been in and out of jail and lost contact
with his family. Bogran said the man lives alone in a one-bedroom
apartment. Twenty years later, he's still addicted to cocaine.

"I don't think when he was a teenager he said, 'When I'm 45 years old, I
want to live in a room with nothing, no family,' " Bogran said.

Bogran's speech to the students was the last of Red Ribbon Week. The week
started as a way to honor the memory of DEA agent Enrique Camarena, who was
murdered by drug traffickers in 1985. His friends and family began wearing
red ribbons to honor his battle against drugs.

The National Family Partnership organized the first Red Ribbon Week in
1988, and schools all over the nation use the week of Oct. 23-31 to educate
students about the risks - physical, emotional and legal - involved with
illegal drugs.

"Statistics show one in four students experiment with drugs or alcohol in
this age group," said Principal Bill Griffin. "You don't get 200 13- to
14-year-olds to sit on the floor for 45 minutes to listen to something they
don't care about."

Bogran and Griffin agree that as children age, it becomes more difficult
for an anti-drug, anti-alcohol message to stick. Bogran's message is
strictly a worst-case scenario.

"Someone who starts using drugs and consistently uses drugs will wind up in
one of three places," he said. "Underground. The second one is in jail. In
rehab, homeless on the street wishing they were dead or in jail."

Even at this age, most students raise their hands when Bogran asks if they
know anyone who abuses drugs. Almost all the male students told him they'd
had some kind of interaction with police. Griffin admits students see
examples of people who abuse drugs or alcohol but aren't homeless or in
jail, contradicting the school's message.

"We can wear all the ribbons and run all the programs," he said. "(But)
when they go home and turn on a ballgame on ESPN, . somebody tells them
that the best way to live life is with a Miller Lite or a Bud Light."

Authority figures have a difficult time creating a message for students at
this age that balances safety versus abstinence, Griffin said, but the
school can't be in a position of telling students how to use illegal drugs
safely.

Bogran said during Red Ribbon Week, students have asked him why alcohol is
legal, but marijuana is not. He explains the legal and historical reasons
but never says that alcohol is any less dangerous.

"Do you realize 80-90 percent of crimes are drug-or alcohol-related?" he
said. "That's a scary statistic."

Bogran also teaches DUI classes and tells his adult students that they can
use alcohol but must use it responsibly. That message isn't appropriate for
eighth-graders because they can't use alcohol legally, he said.