A FORUM FOR COMMUNITY ISSUES : Youth / OPINION ON ANTI-DRUG PROGRAMS

JULIE SLONECKER, 17. Julie is a senior at Monterey High School in Burbank, a continuation school. She plans to become a teacher.

“Just Say No” and those kinds of programs are not really focusing on the problem; they’re just making it more commercial, so everybody knows that they’re saying no to drugs, but they’re not really helping the problem. In the Impact program, everybody talked about their problems. There was a psychiatrist in the group who would help and explain to the people what was going on. Same as Friday Night Live, which is a different program that tries to show people how to have a good time and be sober, too.

I was drinking a lot and smoking pot. I had an addiction to marijuana, and Impact really helped me. You go through all the different stages, like the denial stage, and the programs really help you realize that you do have a problem and what you can do to stop it.

I would say the drug problem is worsening. A lot of people are not involved in the program because they do not want to admit they have a problem. But if they made it more available for more students to get into, then I think more people would get help. Drugs are becoming more available for teen-agers. And people are broadening their experience with other drugs, like acid and Ecstasy.