DRUG PLAN LACKS REAL SOLUTION

"It's not a very good use of taxpayer money."

So says Denise Hallfors, "now a substance abuse prevention researcher at
the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation ..." ("Study: School drug
prevention plans faulty," High Point Enterprise, Aug. 3).

Hallfors was speaking of "the top three programs used by schools to keep
students away from drugs." DARE, Here's Looking at You 2000 and McGruff's
Drug Prevention and Child Protection "haven't shown the kind of results
that schools should expect, despite years of use."

Although Hallfors admits these programs have been a waste of taxpayers'
money, she also says, "federal spending for such programs ... isn't enough."

No, the problem is not a lack of money. The problem is a lack of a solution
to the problem.

To teach children about the dangers of drugs is, in and of itself, also a
waste of taxpayers' money. Kids already know the dangers. The problem is
not a lack of education; the problem is media glorification, peer pressure
and addiction. Education alone will not counter any of these.

There is, however, a program that has proven to work. It has not cured 100
percent of those to whom it has been presented, but it has cured 100
percent of those who have received it and applied it to their lives. It is
found in the Bible, in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new."

It's time we quit being plagued by lies about the "separation of church and
state" clause in the First Amendment to the Constitution. There is no such
thing!

What is in the First Amendment is a restriction against Congress or any
state passing any law to prohibit the free exercise of one's religion. The
free exercise of any Christian's religion is to preach the Gospel to anyone
anywhere.

It's a program that works. Not only does it work to get people off of
drugs, it will work to keep others from getting into drugs. It works to get
people out of a life of crime and violence, and it works to keep others
from taking up a life of crime or violence.

It's a program that works to change an individual's life for the better.
And what may be most important to some: It doesn't cost a cent of
taxpayers' money to implement.

TOMMY GUYER, Thomasville