SHURTLEFF TELLS STUDENTS 'THE TRUTH ABOUT DRUGS'

BOUNTIFUL -- LIKE AN APPLE THAT LOOKS FRESH BUT TUrns out to be rotten with
worms, drugs are also not what they seem, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff
told students at South Davis Junior High School Thursday.

"Sometimes things aren't what they seem," he said after biting into such an
apple and being disappointed in what he found.

Thursday's presentation was the launch of Shurtleff's Drug Reality Check
Tour, which will visit schools in Summit, Salt Lake, Weber, Utah, Iron and
Washington counties as part of the Red Ribbon Celebration.

National Red Ribbon week is held at the end of October in schools
throughout the country as a way to teach children about drugs and alcohol
prevention.

"Why do people take drugs? Because you're told lies about it," Shurtleff
said. "Wake up and listen to the truth about drugs."

Shurtleff said he wanted to talk to students about drug safety as a way to
promote Red Ribbon Week and address Utah's increase in the use of the drug
ecstacy.

Tracey Tabet, spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office, told students
some new drugs that come in the form of a pill or drink appear to be safer
than something smoked, snorted or injected. But the new drugs are just as
dangerous, she said.

She showed the students a picture of a girl who had taken Ecstasy both
before she had taken the drug and after, when she was lying in a hospital
bed dying.

"It doesn't even look like the same person, does it?" she said.

She also spoke about substances that are legal for some purposes but
illegal when used as a drug, such as abused prescription drugs, nitrous
oxide or ketamine, an animal tranquilizer.

Tabet also warned students of rave parties and the risks involved in taking
drugs, which can include being sexually assaulted, depressed, memory loss,
jail time or death.

Schools in Salt Lake City, Morgan and Layton are celebrating Red Ribbon
Week with visits from radio personality Cowboy Ted, a spokesperson for the
Weber/Morgan Health Department and the American Cancer Society's Cowboy
Cancer Crusade program.

In Granite district, Jackling Elementary School students were scheduled to
present a musical program based on the anti-drug campaign.