Commentary; Posted: 6/9/04

Youth in need of community support

Don Heinzman

Any community that believes it does not have a problem with young people drinking and smoking cigarettes and marijuana has its head in the sand.

Survey after survey reveals that young people are drinking alcohol and smoking pot in their high school years. Ask any student in the high school and they can tell you who the abusers are and where they can get some pot either in or out of school.

This problem is not lost on parents who have the greatest stake in dealing with the problem. In a recent survey of residents in Dakota County, a major concern by one third of the respondents was under-age drinking.

Research clearly shows that parents are the key to keeping their kids from abusing drugs including alcohol. When parents lay down the law and the consequences, their kids use and abuse less.

The last statewide survey showed that half of students will try marijuana before they get out of high school, 8 of 10 will drink alcoholic beverages and 6 of 20 will use tobacco by their senior year in high school.

While all this is so clear, parents have a difficult time dealing with the problem and the community itself is unable to muster up an attack.

One community is becoming a model for making a difference in parental awareness and in kids abusing drugs. Sharon MacDonald in the Hopkins-Minnetonka School District operates a successful ìReduce the Useî program aimed at filling parents with information through the drip-by-drip method.

She saturates the community with drug prevention facts and warnings: on the back of high school athletic programs on music programs, on brown grocery bags, on cards in beauty shops, on posters, at special topic meetings and at parent-teacher conferences. Parents hear from coaches, teachers, counselors, other parents, and even employers of young people.

She works with anyone who comes in contact with parents: police, school, churches and particularly youth pastors. The message is repeated in weekly newspapers and in the Hopkins and Minnetonka city newsletters.

An advisory committee from different segments of the community works with her.

The data is showing this bombardment of messages to parents is working. When parents get involved and talk about rules and consequences for their kids, the number of adolescents using drugs drops.

When a community becomes aroused over a drug abuse problem things happen.

Drug store owners watch for kids who buy over-the counter drugs, liquor store operators crack down on any employee who sells liquor and cigarettes to minors, church youth ministers and high school counselors become trained on how to work with families who have kids with a drug problem.

School administrators fight to keep chemical counseling programs, sometimes the first line of defense for parents.

Community leaders must make sure there is a safe place for elementary and junior high school students to go after school when both parents are working. Some leaders are working with Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCAs, 4-H clubs, Boys and Girl Scouts and recreation and Community Education programs.

Parents are good at promoting Little League sports, but programs have to be available for kids who do not play sports.

Community educators sponsor classes for parents who need information to spot signs of drug use and how to combat it.

Above all, the community leadership, particularly those in the churches, needs to say that the community values youth and wants to protect them.

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