As a society, we seem not to anticipate problems, but we do throw money at them after they occur.
Nowhere in all the laws, proposals and planning aimed at dealing with the scourge of drug addiction ravaging our country are the words “prevention” or “education” mentioned. If this is indeed a public health issue, where are the efforts at public health education?
The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in public schools makes a valiant effort to teach the life-determining effects of drug use, but how effective can this be when students return to homes and neighborhoods where it is a fact of everyday life? Parents, families and individuals need to have preventative information presented in a way that teaches the destructive outcomes of drugs.
We did it with tobacco. Why can’t the same kind of campaign be applied to this terrible affliction?
Was it Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, who said, “We will take America without firing a shot. The seeds of your destruction lie within”?
Elaine Kahaner
Cape Elizabeth
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