The subject of Suncoast Rehab’s October 2013 newsletter was aligned around Red Ribbon Week, which was Oct 21-25 in 2013. Red Ribbon Week is an annual event and is the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the country.
It is a way for individuals and groups to come forth and show their commitment to drug education and prevention for our children. The purpose of this campaign, with education on the truth about drugs, is to create a drug-free America.
Red Ribbon Week came about because of a man named Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who had a dream and a passion to make a difference regarding the problem of drugs in this country. He was a police officer who decided to join the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. When he decided to join the US Drug Enforcement Administration, his mother tried to talk him out of it. “I’m only one person,” he told her, “but I want to make a difference.”
Camarena helped to eliminate a huge narcotics manufacturing operation in Mexico. Then, while working undercover 1985, Camarena was kidnapped by a group of angry drug cartel leaders and was murdered.
Despite the horrific turn of events in Camarena’s life, he made a huge difference and through the Red Ribbon Programs will continue to make a huge difference.
Red Ribbon Week commemorates all he was working to accomplish, celebrates all the men and women who are working hard to fight drug trafficking & end the war on drugs and it’s also the week we work to educate kids on drugs so they can stay drug-free themselves.
In 2012 we visited 3 schools during red-ribbon week. We educated over 100 students about drugs. The kids had a lot of fun with this, learned a lot and we learned a lot as well. I can tell you that one of the things I learned was that kids were very, very interested in learning – but it was more than that: It’s just exactly as you’ve heard before: The kids were blank slates and the information I was giving them about drugs was going right into their very eager minds and sticking.
So, why am I telling you this?
Kids are ready to learn and find out. With their impressionable young minds it is important that their first impression about drugs is a correct one. What should the impression be? Information, education, truth. Drugs that are abused are dangerous and deadly; living a life free of drugs is a much more fun, happy, fulfilling life.
Getting our kids involved in red ribbon week, helping them to celebrate a drug-free life and a drug-free America is a great way to change the state of this country in regard to the attitude about drugs.
So what can you do?
Getting kids correct information is key:
Drugs are drugs. Drugs are essentially poisons. Just because they are found to modify the body (or mind) in some way, and just because they are prescribed by a doctor does not mean they do not still have a huge list of side-effects – which includes potential addiction, suicidal tendencies, incurable ticks, etc. You can read up on several of our other drug education articles (see link below). Plus, there may be a drug-free alternative.
One mother said to me, “My mother started putting me on medications when I was nine years old. NINE!! I was then put on so many other drugs through my teenage years… I will never, never, NEVER put my child on any drugs or medication – EVER.”
Think about it: If a 10 year old boy is offered drugs at school by an older boy who tells him these drugs will make him feel great, happier, make him popular, that will be what he knows of drugs. If he is educated before that older boy gets to him he will know to walk away, that drugs do not make you happy or popular, they destroy bodies, minds and lives.
People will operate from what they know. Too many people in this country know the wrong information about drugs or lack the information altogether. Red ribbon week is a chance to educate people of all ages on the truth about drugs, what they do to the body, how they can hurt you and tear families apart. It can save lives. It is also an opportunity to get the kids involved in a great campaign that can win their school an iPad (see www.RedRibbon.org).
The reason we send this newsletter out to you is to enlist your help in educating your own kids, kids you know, or anyone at any age who may be in need of this knowledge, about the dangers of drugs and the effects they have on the body and mind. If only the Heath Ledgers, the Amy Winehouses, the Elvis Presleys, the Marilyn Monroes of the world were fully educated on the harmful affects of drugs from an early age.
If only certain friends I grew up with were taught to be enthusiastic about NOT taking drugs, about what kind of a life that could be. If only they had been taught about what drugs could actually do to a mind, a brain, a body. I learned the truth as a young adult and I was lucky.
I know people that were not so lucky and didn’t come out so unscathed. I have a friend whose cousin is dead from taking one pill he wasn’t prescribed.
If a kid is taught about what a knife is and how to use it, what its purpose is and how it can hurt, that kid will know how to handle that knife. If a kid is merely told to stay away because it is “dangerous” but sees all these adults doing all sorts of things with knives, or if he is told nothing at all, he will likely end up with an accident.
The same can be said of drugs. Educate our children on all aspects of drugs and they will know what to do if someone shows up offering them or they come across drugs at a party or with a friend.
So find a kid or two. Take a few moments and let them know the truth about drugs. Help them to live drug free. Help to save a life.
Click Here to link to drug education articles.
To find out more about Red Ribbon Week go to RedRibbon.Org
