School Efforts Against Drugs
The article of Nov. 13 about eight high school students being arrested on drug charges resulting from a sting operation proves how uninformed our society is about drug and alcohol abuse. The sting operation seems to me to be a Band-Aid to combat a drug problem rather than a treatment of its cause.
Society should recognize and admit that chemical dependency is a disease, an illness that involves people around us in a way no other human sickness can. It begins when adolescents are just “fooling around” with beer or grass. It is a progressive disease that may go unrecognized until a person hits bottom, destroying his or her life and that of loved ones too.
The overall solution is not necessarily to put young people in jail. We need to educate everyone about the illness, starting with adolescents.
Spending money to make criminals out of young people who may have a disease is ludicrous. We can spend money educating and treating the cause to much better results.
CINDY A. MITCHELL
Huntington Beach
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
