By By ROBERT BLANKENSHIP – Managing Editor
Students at four local schools got the "straight dope" about dope during a special program presented by the Alabama Beverage Control this week.
Students at W.S. Neal Middle and High Schools as well as student at Brewton Middle School and T.R. Miller High School were provided information that proved today's popular drugs are extremely dangerous and fatal.
ABC Drug Task Force Sgt. Mike Reese presented the program that included a power point presentation. Not only did he provide the names and faces of many Alabama teenagers who died at the hands of drugs, but also showed video footage and other photos that proved drugs are not worth the risk.
Speaking to the W.S. Neal High School student body he said many teenagers are taking their lives for granted..
Throughout the program, Reese showed pictures of popular, smart students who he said simply made the wrong decisions.
Reese pointed at some of today's popular drugs such as crystal methamphetamine and oxycotin as examples of drugs that havetaken many teenagers lives in recent years.
Traveling with Reese during his state-wide visits is Carol Hudson, a teacher of 20 years in Jacksonville, Ala, whose son died several years ago on an overdose of oxycotin. While he had been using the drug prior to his death, she said on the night he died he had taken only one half of a pill.
Since her son's death, Hudson has quit her job as a teacher and volunteers to travel with the ABC program to share her family's story.
Also in attendance at the program was ABC Agent Don Grant, Sheriff Tim Hawsey, Drug Task Force agents Keith Hutchins and Mike Lambert, Probation Officer Tim Cook and Sheriff-elect Grover Smith.