Posted by bmac on May 31, 2006 at 11:56:15 (PST):
In Reply to: Drugs posted by Mike on May 31, 2006 at 07:34:09 (PST):
: What are the local and state police doing to stop the flow of drugs into our communities? Look at the recent number of deaths due to drug usage. If the police and the District Attorney don't get a handle on this problem now our streets and school are going to be infested with drugs.
Fisrt of all - it's too late. Our streets and schools are already infested. Crack and heroin are the big things now along with pain medications like morphine, etc...
Second - the war on drugs is a waste of money and time and the local police will never have a handle on it. It is a joke and a bad one at that. As a long time counselor I can tell you that the problem and the solution start with the family. "Teach your children well" Threaten them with severe bodily injury and follow through if necessary! Sound bad coming from a counselor? Well, I mean it. These kids need to be scared to death of the thought of doing these drugs - as you mention, they kill. Parents need to take it seriously and communities need to come together to put a stop to it. It is pure foolishness to rely on the police - if they are involved it means it is already too late. It is also not the school's or teacher's responsibility to take care of this situation - although being extremely tuff on kids who are caught bringing drugs to school is a good idea in my opinion.
The police effort is to be commended but we have to realize that they are not all powerful and all knowing and they don't have anywhere near the involvement with these kids that their parents do or at least should. The whole war on drugs thing has become a political thing anyhow. Everyone knows that arrests go up during election time and drop off in the mean time. Drug dealers know it too and the "smart" ones lay low during elections. By the way - I speak not only from the viewpoint of a counselor, but also from the view of someone who has battled personally with drug abuse. I love my parents dearly and think that overall they were loving and good parents - they were however, very liberal when it came to "minor" drug use. i.e. pot and alcohol were not a huge deal to them and I can tell you that the idea that these are "gateway" drugs is all too true. So again, if you have children and you want to keep them - beat the slop out of them if you ever catch them abusing any drug. If you catch the neighbors kids doing it with them - beat the slop out of them too!