Narconon Suncoast Graduate Provides “Real Life” Experience at Weekly Anti-Drug Abuse Seminar
Clearwater, FL – This past Wednesday evening, a local Narconon Suncoast graduate added “real life drug abuse experience” to the Truth about Drugs lectures being presented in downtown Clearwater. The hour-long presentation covered the effects of MDMA, Heroin, and other drugs. The presentation gave a personal side of addiction as experienced by a former addict. The powerful and interactive talk got down to the core root of why a person gets addicted to drugs and how to get clean from a life of drug abuse.
“I had no idea how easy it is for anyone to get drugs in our or any community. Parental awareness is key to catching most family addiction issues before they start,” said Louise Mead, who came last Wednesday with her 16-year-old son. “More people need to hear first-hand how addictions start and what families can do to help their kids stay clean. I know hearing this former addict speak created a very sobering impact on my son and gave us a lot of new material to discuss.”
“Having worked in prevention and rehab for over 19 years now doesn’t mean I’m not surprised to hear what these talented young people have to share each week,” said Yvonne Rodgers, Director of Community Services for Narconon Suncoast.
“Hearing a former dealer talk about what happened to her prescription drug supplies in Richmond, Virginia, when we shut hundreds of pill mills here in Florida, made me realize that our local actions do matter. You also start to get the destructive magnitude of having one addict in your neighborhood, let alone having twenty. It really is vital we work together to educate our neighbors and get addicts the help they need before they become a menace to the communities they live in. No one wants someone with an $800 a day habit living next door, because sooner or later, your home, your car, you kids become their target to support that habit.”
Topics of the Truth about Drugs seminars include Alcohol, Marijuana, Ecstasy, Cocaine, Methamphetamine and Heroin abuse. The seminars include information on the drug itself, signs and symptoms of use, physical effects of using drugs and finally, how to help someone who is addicted. Narconon Suncoast graduates share their stories of being introduced to drugs, why they started using them, how it turned into an addiction and what they did to handle their problem. These powerful stories complement the educational component of the seminar and give families topics to discuss about real-world drug use.
Narconon Suncoast is a non-profit drug rehabilitation and education program that takes an educational and behavioral approach to dealing with addiction and does not believe a person is an addict for life. For more than 50 years, the Narconon program has helped to reunite families, solve addictions, and salvage those once thought lost permanently to substance abuse.
