The younger they are...

Today I spoke to several groups about drug education and prevention. Really, it was a few lectures on drug awareness. The point of drug abuse prevention should never be authoritarian or, worse yet, frightening.

Young people are naturally curious about everything and creating a taboo or some mystique around a whole subject attracts them like honey (buns). It isn't true that making drugs unavailable or illegal creates a desire in people to have them. But it does make them more interesting. When something is more interesting, there is a certain percentage of the population that will be drawn to it.

In any case, during one of the discussions, one of the students raised the question, "What are the effects of crystal methamphetamine?"

I hadn't planned on discussing meth in this particular group for a couple of reasons, but there were several other in the audience who also looked at me for the answer to this question.

On a show of hands, it became obvious that not only was this group curious about it, they desperately needed to know the truth about how meth ravages the mind and body.

I asked, who here knows a 'tweaker?' (Slang for meth addict) There came nervous laughter and every hand eventually went up.

The tough part of this is that I was speaking to an eighth grade class. These were thirteen year old kids. But it was in the high desert of California, the meth capital of the USA.

Driving back to LA, I wondered how many of that group were destined to use, how many we were able to avert from that fate and what the situation will be here in ten years if we don't take drug use at such a young age more seriously.