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Guest column: Drug awareness in our town

How often have you heard the old African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child" and not really aid much attention to what it means? And how often have you heard the comment, "Alcohol is not a drug and a little bit won't hurt anyone." Unfortunately it does seriously harm young people. The average age our young people take their first drink is 13 and 40 percent of young people surveyed had taken at least one drink in the last 30 days.

One of the jobs of parents is to protect their children from harm of any kind. Parents need to know where their children and teens are at all times and educate them in the dangers of teen drinking. What about the parents who seem not to care or work two and three jobs with little time left to devote to their families? That's where the village in the adage comes into play.

African village children know that everyone is watching out for them, monitoring what they do, and reporting back to their parents. Williams is small enough to assume responsibility for all its children. "But," you say, "These kids aren't mine!" When you consider the lives lost due to drunk drivers, loss of a potential creative adult because of brain damage, and a less than capable workforce which affects a town's economics, it makes common sense to be a part of the education and care of all our children.

Ask a teen you know about the drinking parties in Williams. It isn't realistic to assume that our teens will never experiment with alcohol but as concerned community adults we can utilize all the protective measures at our command. Other communities are taking charge of the situations that encourage early drinking habits. Shouldn't Williams care as much?

For more information contact me at (928) 635-9645.


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