Lakewood : Funds for Anti-Drug Class

The Lakewood City Council has allocated $54,000 to fund an anti-drug program for sixth-graders who attend Long Beach Unified School District schools in Lakewood.

The money will go toward expanding the Long Beach school system’s existing Substance Abuse Narcotic Education program (SANE), which provides drug prevention lessons, Lakewood spokesman Donald Waldie said. Half of the money will be reimbursed by the school district and the other half will come from a drug forfeiture fund that the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station will receive in the near future, Waldie said.

“I guess you can call this fair use for foul money,” Waldie said.

The council began considering the Lakewood-based anti-drug program when Sheriff Sherman Block announced that the city would receive a portion of the $160,000 the Lakewood sheriff’s deputies collected in area drug arrests, Waldie said.

The SANE program, which will be taught by a deputy from the Lakewood Sheriff’s Station, will begin in January, officials said. It will augment the city-sponsored Substance Abuse Facts Education program, which also teaches Lakewood 6th-graders about the dangers of drug abuse.

“This new program will be more intensive,” Waldie said. “It’s a more comprehensive program.”