Aaron Negangard is the Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor is a member of the Drug Free Ohio County.   You can reach him by email at anegangard@dearbornohioprosecutor.com.

As a parent, would you allow your child to play Russian roulette with a loaded revolver?  The answer is, “Of course not.”  The answer is equally clear to what you should do to prevent your child from becoming an addict.  As a parent, it is your duty and obligation to be their parent and not their friend.  If you try to ignore the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse to which your child will be exposed, then you increase the likelihood that your child may fall victim to drug and/or alcohol abuse.  As a parent, you must become educated on the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse just as you would any other danger that might befall your child.  You must also not be naïve to think that your child would never do that kind of thing.  What parent ever believes that their child could do that kind of thing?  The fact is, substance abuse among our youth is a very significant problem in our community and it crosses all socio-economic barriers.  Every kid who attends a high school in Dearborn or Ohio County is exposed to illegal drug and alcohol abuse by their friends and classmates.  The purpose of this article is to educate you on what you can do to protect your family from this clear and present danger to our youth.
First, it is important to understand the road to addiction.  Alcohol abuse among our youth is significant.  Alcohol abuse increases the chances that your child will become addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.  In fact, medical research has determined now understands that a young person’s brain develops until they are in their early twenties.  As a result, the younger a person is when they drink, and the greater frequency with which they drink, is essentially reprogramming their brain to become substance abuse dependent.  There is a direct correlation to the age at which kids begin drinking and the age and the percentage of alcoholism among those persons.  Studies show that almost fifty percent of people who first use alcohol at age twelve and thirteen become alcoholics.  This means that a significant portion of our youth is already at risk of becoming alcoholics.  The pattern we are seeing in law enforcement is that youth are drinking at younger ages.  It is not uncommon when I go to speak to kids in fourth and fifth grade that a large percentage of them have tried alcohol already.
An additional problem is that when our youth drink alcohol, they tend to drink as much alcohol as quickly as possible in an effort to get intoxicated as quickly as possible.  This behavior is extremely dangerous increasing the likelihood that our children may drink and drive or become victims of sexual or physical assault.  This ignores the fact that those who engage in this behavior are much more likely to become addicted to illegal drugs.  In fact, studies show that of those who consume alcohol at age fifteen, sixty percent are more likely to become addicted to illegal drugs than those who wait until legal drinking age.  Our youth do not understand the dangers of alcohol abuse since positive messages regarding alcohol are extremely prevalent.  Advertisements depicting beer commercials and other drinks are on television and radio and in magazines.  This lifestyle is depicted as one of harmless fun and generally considered a rite of passage.  The bottom line is that alcohol abuse among our youth puts them in serious danger of becoming addicted to alcohol and/or drugs and, it is our duty as parents to do everything we can to protect them.
The increase in alcohol abuse then leads to the other factors pertaining to addiction.  No child says, “I want to be a drug addict.”   However, every day we see young people who are addicted to drugs as a result of the decisions they made in their youth.  Alcohol is the ultimate gateway drug.  Frequently, alcohol abuse leads to the abuse of other drugs such as marijuana and prescription drugs.  The prescription drug problem among our children is a serious problem and, if left unchecked, could become an epidemic.  The availability of oxycontin and other opiate based painkillers is destroying kids and families in our community.  In the recent drug sweep by the Dearborn County Special Crimes Unit, we filed more cases in one day relating to prescription drug abuse than all the major felonies that were filed in 1995.  This is a significant increase in crime and drug abuse.  Prescription drug abuse has led to an increase in heroin abuse.  Again, the road to addiction generally starts with alcohol, then marijuana and then prescription drugs.  Prescription drug abuse poses a significant threat.  Youth are not concerned that these drugs pose any dangers.  For example, these drugs are generally prescribed by a doctor and are approved by the FDA.  Generally, someone they know or love takes or has taken the medication for a condition.  In that young person’s eyes, the person is not a drug addict and so it is not perceived as a threat.  But, in fact, it is a very real threat.  It is not uncommon for these young people to become addicted to the prescription drugs.  And what was once easily obtained becomes more difficult when one has to feed a daily addiction.  As the drug addiction becomes more severe, the desire for the young person to seek a more potent drug leads that person to use heroin.  Heroin is a highly addictive opiate based drug that is relatively cheap and easily found in our area.  Just last year an illegal Mexican was convicted and received the maximum sentence for bringing large amounts of heroin into Dearborn County.  Since the first of the year, the Dearborn Superior Court II, Probation Department has had over 25 probationers test positive for heroin. When I speak to high school kids in our area, almost all of them know someone who is addicted to heroin.  Recently at the Youth Summit sponsored by CASA, I spoke of the prescription drug problem in our schools and its near epidemic status and asked a young man if I was exaggerating the problem or if it was as serious as I believed it to be.  He assured me that I was not exaggerating and that it was a significant problem in the schools.  It is a shame when our schools are not to the point of being drug free and safe.  This should be a basic requirement for our public schools to be safe and free from drugs.  However, that is simply not the case.  This is not a problem that can be fought by the law enforcement community alone.  We need the support of the school administrators, parents and the youth.
There is hope.  Together as a community we can attack this problem.  First and foremost, as a parent you must protect your family from this problem.  To do so, you must become educated and understand the road to addiction and the dangers of alcohol and drug abuse.  The most important thing you can do is talk to your child.  Research shows that the best way to protect your child from alcohol and drug abuse is to talk to them.  Know who their friends are, know where they are, know what they are doing.  Your child has no right to privacy from you.  You should have access to their My Space or other social networking sites.  You should know who they are calling on their cell phone, who they are text messaging and the content of those messages.  If they do not want you to see it, than there is something they do not want you to know.  To those youth who are not engaging in this kind of activity and for us to make your school safe, you have to provide us with information regarding who is doing what in the schools.  In fact, I will be going to the schools and offering a $250.00 reward for anyone who can provide us with information that ultimately leads to the arrest and conviction of someone engaged in trafficking drugs to our youth.   The Reward Tip Line number is 812-537-3571.  Those persons who participate in the program will have their identity protected.
The Partnership for a Drug Free America provides extensive information on its website on how you can protect your family.  Please visit www.drugfree.org and learn how to talk to your child and all the steps that you can take to protect your family.  The most important thing you can do is to let your child know that you love them and that you do not want them to do drugs and alcohol because it could ruin their life.  Letting your child know that you love them and care for them is the simplest and most effective way to protect your family.  So please do your part.  Visit www.drugfree.org and join us in protecting you and your family.  Together we can make our community safe.