 By Kayleigh Martin February 17, 2006
I don't care if the stupid bridge gets built or not there are much more important and much graver things to worry about. Why don't we discuss the real issues that plague OUR town. Let's look at drug addictions. Our kids are turning more and more frequently to drugs and harder drugs at that. There are major problems with both meth-amphetamines and Oxycotons. Will it take another kid to die before we talk about it again? Does a kid need to die in order to look at alternatives for a month and then give up? People cringe when they hear about a heroin junkie, yet don't consider oxycoton use being very scary. Oxycoton is ten times worse, the cravings and the urge to seek out the drug can last for several years, Oxyies destroy the mind and they do it quick. I work with young adults nearly everyday that are already addicted to one drug or another, I spend a lot of time talking about it and one of the questions I ask is why they started. The reply is almost always "There was nothing else to do". You may look at these young adults as bad people or unintelligent, but I can tell you that their not, they are good, they are smart but they lack alternatives. When I was in high school it was the same, I partied, I drank, there weren't any other healthy options for youth. Alcohol and drugs were everywhere, you can't just drive around town or sit and play video games all night every night. I remember reading in Sitnews [police report] a couple of months ago that a 12 year old girl and a 13 year old girl were given MC's, can we blame them? What alternatives have we given them? Where else could they have gone to hang out in a healthy environment? Take a minute and write down everything that someone between the ages of 13 and 20 can do after 7:00pm at anytime of the year. Here I'll do it for you, go to Wal-mart, walk around town, go to the pioneer pantry. Those sound like a lot of fun huh? No wonder most of our kids turn to drinking, drugging, stealing cars, and turning the helm to ruination. Without healthy options for kids after school and during the summer months how can we ask them to maintain healthy activities in school? There's no balance in their lives so they look for other ways to create balance, because everyone's doing it, and they're right. I don't have many solutions to this problem, I, on my own can't create solutions. That is why I am writing this. I need help. WE as a community of caring people and parents can. What can we do to help treat these issues? If you would use a portion of the brain cells that are burnt on arguing over this bridge into solutions for our youths we might just be able to come up with some viable and healthy solutions for our kids. Unless of course you all feel safer turning your heads and hiding behind the bridge, or the dock, or whatever the next thing is that isn't going to change much. Just keep in mind that when we die, our youth will be here, what kind of example do we want to set? Kayleigh Martin
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sitnews.
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