Sabrina Vigil

Editor-in-Chief

Crack, cocaine, ecstasy, meth, speed, crystal, mary j, cannibas, oxy… there are plenty of names for the illegal drugs rapidly growing in popularity around America as well as around the provincial town of Lincoln.

These illicit drugs are also becoming increasingly more common around the LHS campus. With on-campus Officer Steve Krueger says he sees, “Marijuana a lot… it’s like kids now don’t consider it a drug, don’t think it’s a big deal.” With a mindset like that many students around campus are on their way towards a path of destruction.

On an in-service day for teachers, the last day of Winter Break, the police department made a presentation on the dangers of illegal drugs especially methamphetamine. Officer Krueger says, “I was hoping they’d start something [a program or presentation] on campus once the CSI class started.”

Christie Gade, Lincoln resident and a mother of five, recounted her addictions, “I started at 15, I started with alcohol, just partying, trying to fit in.” This testimonial is what most teenagers would say about their illegal lifestyle. “At that time I thought it was an escape, a way to get away from my problems. My parents were going through a divorce, I was moving, a lot of typical reasons,” Gade says of the beginning. “I thought I was just having a great time.”

Unfortunately, this story may seem all too familiar to many youths today. With behavior like this becoming more and more common around town police have been seen at football and basketball games to prevent anything, as well as at school functions such as dances.

“In rehab they talk about alcohol as a gateway drug, people use it, and pot, none of the hard stuff, and never think of it as an addiction,” Gade comments.

When anyone uses a substance, their mind becomes altered, whether it’s from a drug such as marijuana, a hallucinogen such as ecstasy, or the numbing sensation of alcohol. Students may think this will enhance their experiences at dances and parties when in reality all is does is disable them from remembering what happened or stopping anything from happening.

“I wanted to maintain my virginity until I was married but I was raped when I was seventeen because I was drunk. I was too drunk to stop it from happening,” Gade described of her early years of addiction. “I was in car accidents when I was sixteen from being too drunk. A lot of things that happened then set things into motion for the rest of my life.”

After LHS has seen the results, more than a few times, of drunken driving, first-hand, and the way it can take away the lives of beloved students, many would think that students would abstain from drinking. And yet students are still being hauled away in ambulances from dances and being suspended for having substances at school, on field trips and at dances.

“I stopped drinking by the age of nineteen and moved onto prescription drugs… I had doctors prescribing me every drug under the sun, by my 30s I was on every kind from opieds… to speed to keep me awake, morphine to make me sleep, Benzedrine to help calm me down…they gave me headaches so I got something for that,” says Gade of her addiction to narcotics. “What many people don’t realize is the addiction is a disease.”

It seems that today, kids don’t know what’s a drug and what isn’t. It’s a felony to be caught with prescription drugs that aren’t yours. It’s illegal for a minor to consume alcohol. Anything except medicinal marijuana is illegal, along with all those other street drugs. Even just hanging around people that do illicit substances could start a record if a teen is caught with them while they get busted.

“The worst was when I was thinking I had no quality of life without them, its misleading. I asked my doctors to take me off my medications but they wouldn’t. They said I wouldn’t be able to survive. What they didn’t want to admit was they’d gotten me addicted…” confessed Gade of her many attempts to quit the disease. “One night I took several handfuls of everything and went to sleep. I slept for a day and a half. I woke up and threw up every pill I took. I can’t tell you why. I don’t even know why. It just wasn’t my time.”

In a survey done by the White House in 2005 it showed that an estimated 97% of Americans 12 and older have tried marijuana. In 2006 a reported 57% of high school seniors smoke marijuana regularly while 64% of sophomores smoke regularly. Even kids as young as eighth grade smoke marijuana, a reported 73% in fact. These numbers have more than doubled in the past five years from 2001 when there was a little over 40% of high school seniors smoking.

“I had five kids I had to take care of, I was out of control,” Gade says of when she knew it was time to change. “In total…four months. Anybody says you can do rehab in 30 days is kidding themselves.” Gade described how statistics showed that two out of every ten people in rehab fall back after a year. She says, “Its best if you don’t start in the first place.”

Addiction is a disease, a hereditary one at that. While some addictions such as alcoholism may be apparent, it’s still hard for teens to know what illnesses run in their families until they are addicted themselves. Students think, oh I can quit anytime, but do they? Or, it’ll never happen to me, and then it does. During times of the most crucial need for communication between parents and teens it is often lost amidst arguments and door slams.

Gade briefly described the difference between two of her older daughters. One who’s 24, and had never had a drink of alcohol, a smoke or anything. “She doesn’t shove it in other’s faces, she knows in runs in the family, everyone’s tasted alcohol. But she says, she wantsto be unique to have to be able to say, I’ve never had a drink. I want to be able to be on my deathbed and say I’ve never tried alcohol.” Gade says of her daughter in comparison to the many who may try something once or twice before deciding it’s not for them.

On the other hand, Gade’s other daughter, who’s 26, is as she says, “Completely into drugs. It doesn’t matter [about her family. You have to do it yourself [go into rehab].”

With so many celebrities today spread across newspapers and tabloids with reported addictions and problems, is it the star factor that makes teens try? Celebrities like Britney Spears and Mariah Carey who have been in and out of rehab several times, are they setting the example for today’s youth? Who is?

Students need to realize the damaging affects of their actions. It isn’t just a good time, it’s an illegal time. This epidemic is out-of-control. In a small rural town shouldn’t have underground meth labs, but it does.

What many students don’t know is that the police department has obtained a canine unit for the school next year. Yes, there will be a dog on campus with Officer Krueger, trained to sniff out drugs. Will this make students feel safe? Will it stop the usage of these illegal substances and the ruin of young lives? Hopefully. Hopefully students will learn that the evanescent escape isn’t worth the lifelong damaging effects.

If this weren’t a problem across America there wouldn’t be a need for anti-tobacco commercials, billboards, Truth commercials, and Red Ribbon Week. But there is and it seems like people don’t pay attention as much as they should. It seems like Red Ribbon Weeks comes and goes without a second thought, without any effort put into it to get students involved or any real action.

Teens at the school are getting caught with illegal substances like marijuana and coming back top class a couple weeks later. That’s a fault in the system. The substance abuse problem is out of control at school and needs to be stopped.

When a teen shows up to school with any illegal substance, it’s situational depending on how far the police become involved. Vice Principal Ms. Smith said, “If s kid is under the influence or caught smoking… it’s a five day suspension, the second offense with alcohol or drugs is automatically up for expulsions and also a call to the police.”

Officer Krueger says, “That’s the difference between a minor and an adult, we can release them to their parents. It’d still be an arrest and they’d have to go to court through the juvenile defense system…Marijuana, that’s not quite as severe, I’d write a report, notify the parents the student would have to pay a fine or do community service.”

The school and the police work together to make sure the best action is taken in consideration to handling students with substance problems. “If there’s a kid who doesn’t have a record I may just counsel them but if it’s ever like bringing drugs to school, they get arrested and go through the process,” says Officer Krueger.

Yet not all offenses are seen the same. “Now meth, that’s a felony for just having even a tiny bit, or giving it to students or selling it to students, they’d probably be arrested and go to juvenile hall for that,” Officer Krueger states.

As far as per grade, Ms. Smith says, “I think freshman and sophomores have stayed the same on campus. Juniors and seniors tend to do more off-campus, they have the transportation to leave. Our biggest problem is freshman and sophomores but it’d be naïve to say the juniors and seniors aren’t an issue.”

“Anyone at a school in the United States that says drugs are not a problem at their campus is a fool,” Ms. Smith concluded. “It’s just something we have to work on.”