STHS students demonstrate consequences of drug use
Publisher’s note: This is one of a few articles about the Drug Store Project. This marks the 10-year anniversary of the program. This year’s event will be April 2 at Lake Tahoe Community College. For more info about volunteering, donating or if you have questions, email Lisa Huard at lhuard@ymail.com.
By Kathryn Reed
“Pick your friends wisely.”
That’s one way Caleb Russell stays away from drugs and alcohol.
As a freshman at South Tahoe High School, students who want him to use illegal drugs or alcohol have confronted him.
“If you’re not doing it, you’re not cool” is what some kids think, Odalys Rodriguez said. She, too, is a freshman at STHS. But she’s not buying the rhetoric.
Both students are part of the AVID program and are part of a group of 11 students who will be instrumental in the April 2 Drug Store Project. Now in its 10th year, the Drug Store Project teaches sixth-graders about the dangers of drugs. All of these AVID kids went through the program.
“It really did scare me,” Rodriguez said of Drug Store Project.
Russell said, “It gives you an idea of what will happen.”
They are proof that the program has worked.
South Tahoe High School students prepare for their roles in the April 2 Drug Store Project. Photo/Kathryn Reed
It’s March 14 and the freshmen are in the middle of their second rehearsal. Music plays and a group dances. Three others are talking another kid into taking some Vicodin and mixing his drugs. He does. And then he passes out.
This is aptly named the “party scene” during Drug Store Project. What happens to that kid as well as the underage party hostess unfolds in other scenes.
While their part is a huge component of Drug Store Project, they are having fun rehearsing, learning lines, trading out parts and helping each other. When it comes to the real day they have to perform the skit nine times because the younger students come in that many groups.
“It sends a message to sixth-grade kids to avoid a party situation,” teacher Julia Russell said. “They want to share with kids that you have to be aware at parties and make good choices.”
Choices – that’s the overwhelming message of Drug Store Project. That everyone has a choice to say yes or no to whatever they are confronted with and that each decision has consequences.
Part of the high school organization’s mission is community service. This is the second year AVID students have participated in Drug Store Project, while previously Friday Night Live kids did.
My Mother lives in a very nice retirement community in Sonoma County. Her neighbor is a man who was slipped LSD in the “60’s”. He attended an Ivy League college, and it was during a hazing. He used to be brilliant. I have spoken with him. He is nice enough, but has to keep moving while he talks, and has already caused a fire with his chain smoking. He can not drive, his food is delivered, he has a housekeeper, and others to check up on him. This man was very lucky, in his lawsuit, most people never receive the care they need once their brains have been fried. His Mother is in her nineties and still comes to check up on him. My Mother has spoken with her and said that she is still heartbroken at the waste of what should have been such a wonderful life.
Kudos to the young people. They’re strength will not only save their lives. But, may carry a message strong enough to save another. Also, a strong message to parents. These drugs were scored by stealing them from their folks. Kids can’t afford to buy such drugs. For example, Oxicodine is about $50-70 on the street, about $6 legally, Percocet $10-20 or $6 legally,Vicodin $10-20 or $1.50 legally. People don’t sell these drugs on street corners, they sell them at bars and casinos.(for the most part) most of these kids are stealing them from their parents. People using these meds have to keep track of them.
What a world. When you were young you had to hide your drugs from your parents. Now you have to hide them from your kids!:-D