Red Ribbon Week and Drug Prevention is "Failing"

In fifth period Geoscience, we received a pleasant surprise. Free candy? Yes please! Here's the catch. With every piece of candy handed out, the teacher was instructed to recite a cheesy catchphrase to encourage students not to do drugs. For instance, with a jolly rancher, they'd hand it to you and say "Be jolly! Say no to drugs!" and with a small lollipop, they were told to tell us "Don't be a sucker! Stay away from drugs!"

Needless to say, this caused massive amusement to the students, particularly the less-than-stellar students who laughed at the fact the school honestly thought they could curb illegal drug usage by giving out free candy.

Drugs are a problem at Eureka High School. I don't have a single class in which I can say that every student in the classroom is completely clean. Marijuana, in particular, seems to be quite rampant at our school. The availability of drugs isn't the only problem. It's the apathy of the teenagers' parents, who either aren't parenting correctly or simply don't care.

It's not unusual to sit in the library and hear conversations about smoking pot. As I sit here typing, I'm listening to a group of guys talk about how they like to blow smoke from pot in their pets' faces and watch their helpless animals react to the drugs.

Red Ribbon Week, in my mind, is a failure. Most students have no idea the impact drugs have on their bodies. Those that DO know the impact, simply don't care.

If you want to gain a solid distaste of humanity, walk through the halls of a high school...it's natural selection at its finest. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't utterly ashamed of my generation.