Where and how do children become involved in drug abuse? Primarily in the schools. Children themselves refer to the schools as the “supermarket centers” for drugs during the school term and the city streets and parks at other times. Here is what some of them have to say.

A seventeen-year-old Connecticut lad said: “I was just entering high school when I was first exposed to drugs. Almost every person in school knows someone who sells drugs, whether or not he uses them. The funniest part of the whole thing is that it’s all done in the open. It’s stored in the students’ lockers. You would be shocked to see the dealers’ lockers stacked full of ‘nickel’ and ‘dime’ bags of ‘pot’ [marijuana].”

Said a teen-ager: “The first time I was invited to indulge in marijuana was in my sophomore year. Many of my friends were trying it, simply out of curiosity. After a while I took it.”

A boy from Detroit, Michigan, writes: “In my biology class last semester there was this kid who said to me, if I ever changed my mind and wanted drugs, he would give them to me cheap.”

In Los Angeles young Jafus said a friend had offered him drugs in the washroom of his high school. How was the temptation presented? “Come on over here and try this,” the friend urged. “It’ll make a man out of you. It’ll make you feel good.” On another occasion in a neighborhood laundromat a “pusher” of drugs boasted how easily he made money, and invited Jafus to his home where he said he had a big bowl of marijuana and a big jar of “reds” (seconal). What should be done in such cases? What Jafus says he did was this: “I got out of there as fast as I could.”

In talking with students it becomes evident that drugs are available in many schools. Marijuana is smoked in washrooms. Pills are frequently seen. One Los Angeles family wondered why their son rushed straight to the bathroom every day after school. Then they found out that he would not go to the rest room at school because of the drug use and other immoral practices there. It is reported that in Los Angeles juvenile arrests for dangerous drugs increased 247 percent between 1967 and 1968!

Better Protected

When one is speaking with young persons who have had these experiences, one fact stands out: On the whole, the children of Jehovah’s witnesses, known for their high moral principles, do not have as great a problem as other students. When a student refused a barbiturate with the comment, “I’m one of Jehovah’s witnesses,” he was told: “We don’t have anything to do with you anyway.” The “pusher” walked away.

Fifteen-year-old Marilyn knew that drugs were common in her school. But no one had ever offered any to her. Why not? “Well those people hang around in specific crowds, and if you are not in a crowd with them they usually won’t bother you.”

A Witness, whose son was in a school where a large number of students had been arrested for drug violations, asked his son: “Has anyone ever offered dope to you?” No one had. “Have you ever seen any?” The son had not.

Why not? The fact is that there are persons to whom one usually does not propose certain things. Even youths show, by their actions, what principles they have. Children reared in families where Biblical principles really are taught have a great advantage, for their high moral standards are often well known by other youths. Thus, Witness children are usually not approached by drug users as are other children. Their living by Bible principles serves as a protection for them.

Often children are introduced to drugs through a close associate whom they regard as a “friend.” A former addict who is now one of Jehovah’s witnesses said: “In my experience with drugs, in the almost five years that I was using them, I never met anybody that was coerced into trying them for the first time. You just don’t give it away free unless it is a good friend of yours, or you’ve got a lot on hand and you give away a tiny bit. People take it of their own volition.” Listening to your child may help you to protect him from such so-called friends.