June 26th is the UN International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
“Yes, there is a lot to do to stem the tide of drug experimentation by youth,” says Clark Carr, President of
Narconon International, headquartered in Los Angeles. “Daily we are confronted with new, sometimes bizarre statistics, such as described in the
LA Times article, relating that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other organizations are now drug screening municipal waste water and sewage systems to determine city-wide abuse of drugs – drug metabolites in the sewers!” London and Milan reported to show heroin use. Las Vegas, more methamphetamine. But Narconon staff and students, Carr says, know from talking with students face to face what drugs are being used right now, here. The kids always are in the know about the street and school scene.
In the U.S., in this last year Narconon reached 265,000 youth with drug education. In Southern California, Tony Bylsma, as an example, spearheaded delivery of 540 talks to 26,000 students in 173 schools. He knows from his students what “pharming” parties are – the new term for hanging out and downing assorted pharmaceuticals from parents’ medicine cabinets or pills scored on the net.
“However,” Bylsma says, “daily I do get good news, bright, thankful faces.” Narconon drug educators regularly survey their students. Bylsma showed a recent Los Angeles 7th-grader survey which cheerfully reports. “It was cool! Cause he wasn’t boring and we understood him … Before I thought drugs were cool, and I was so close to using them.”
Adults too need constantly to learn what’s what in the changing drug scene.
“The sun never sets on Narconon drug education,” says Carr. “We can’t afford to rest. Fortunately, we get more energy back from the kids than we ever give out. That’s the joy of doing this work.”
For more information on Narconon drug education or to ask for a presentation, please go to
www.narconon.org and click on the Narconon center nearest you.
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