Building bright, drug-free futures

By BRYCE KELLY

Mt. Pleasant News

2,700 community leaders from across the nation and 10 countries took part in Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America?s (CADCA) 25th Annual National Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C., and Henry County wasn?t left out of the mix. Chris Kempker, a representative from the Henry County Substance Abuse Coalition, was also invited to attend and Kempker said the forum was not only educational, but also telling of what is to come in small communities like Henry County in regard to substance abuse.

Of course, the subject of marijuana use throughout the country was the headline of most major discussions at the forum. According to Kempker, the overall consensus of many of the discussions surrounding marijuana was that legalizing marijuana is becoming more harmful than helpful due to the lack of data available to determine the overall health and economical impact of the drug being legalized.

?While we were there, some of the most interesting speakers that we heard from were representatives from Colorado, Washington and Oregon who have dealt with the legalization of medical marijuana and retail marijuana in their states,? said Kempker. ?These speakers were all in agreement that they wished they would have waited on legalizing marijuana because enough data on the effects of legalizing it are just not available to us yet.?

While Kempker and many other professionals are waiting for a significant amount of data to make definite decisions of legalizing the drug, what amount of raw data that is available seems to be pointing to a variety of negative points of concern.

?The data we do have from the National Institute on Drug Abuse is showing that a majority of youth using marijuana are perceiving it as a non-harmful drug due to states that have chosen to legalize it,? Kempker says. ?Data also shows that recreational use of the drug is going up and the age of users is becoming younger. The repercussions of this really are that when kids start using at a younger age, the addiction rates are stronger and we already know that marijuana is a gateway drug to other, harder drugs.?

Locally, the findings discussed at the coalition seem to ring true as more high schools in the Henry County area have reported abuse of drugs like e-cigarettes, alcohol and cocaine among their high school and middle school students from a variety of genders, socio-economic classes and peer groups. In addition, marijuana that is widely used today is much stronger than marijuana used in the 1970s and 1980s.

So what are experts saying is going to help curb the alarming trends the United States is seeing with regard to drug use? Many say combating the issue really begins at home and that messages kids hear about drug use is of vital importance.

?The government has really not stepped up and done much enforcement on the issue of recreational use,? Kempker says. ?This is coupled with the fact that many teens aren?t being discouraged from using it by their parents. As a result, kids are getting the message that drug use is not that bad.?

Despite a lot of the gloomy subject matter that surrounded many of the forum?s sessions, reports are showing positive numbers that indicate alcohol, cigarette and prescription drug use in the country has gone down slightly. These encouraging factoids are just examples of what, Kempker says, are good examples of what good education, quality parenting and constant positive encouragement can do to prevent or slow the use of drugs and alcohol in our schools and among American youth.

According to Kempker, communities like those within Henry County should be proactive in staying on top of what lawmakers and government officials are doing to meet the reality of the drug issues facing America?s youth, and parents and teachers should never begin to underestimate the power of education and setting a positive example for young people.

?The days of ?just say no? are gone. But, education and encouraging our kids to make good choices are never going to be irrelevant. In Henry County we do have a strategic plan to help deal with these issues in our community, and we will continue to refine and build on that plan,? Kempker says. ?Healthy kids build healthy communities. They are our future and we want that future to be as bright as it can be.?