Our community and others nationwide are blessed by having citizens who care enough to give their time and talents to the advantage of numerous causes.
One common to all is the effort to educate and discourage kids from permitting themselves to become addicted to illegal drugs, or those legal but consumed in an unprescribed manner.
Opiates have become the drug of choice in many sub-cultures whose inhabitants find overdoses of prescription painkillers a way for their minds to trip off into a fantasyland.
Good samaritans rightfully think if kids are made abundantly aware of the dangers that lie along the road to addiction, and reinforce that message as they become teenagers and young adults, they will avoid a detour from the acceptable route better traveled.
They point to all the disadvantages that arise from becoming involved with meth, marijuana and other drugs, including any number of new concoctions. They also allow opiates are perfectly fine for their intended purpose, to help overcome physical problems, but can be a death wish if abused.
The legion of folks who want to intervene have success, but never as much as they would prefer.
TWO DAYS this week testimonyin court here resulted in Joshua Knapp, Rhonda Jackson and James Myers being ordered to stand trial for murder, in the first degree, of Shawn Cook.
No recap is necessary. Information about the cases was splashed over the Register’s front pages on Wednesday and Thursday, and will come to public view again when the defendants move to District Court for trial.
Cook’s horrific murder occurred, testimony assured, from complications of a drug deal that wasn’t completed to the satisfaction of the defendants.
Register reporter Richard Luken covered the hearings. In retrospect, he being one to think beyond the box, Luken suggested sitting in on the preliminaries, or trials when they occur, would be a sterling way to fortify any and all efforts to make kids — lo, anyone for that matter — understand the evils of illegal drugs, for the user, the purveyor and, often, idle bystanders.
We aren’t about to reckon how deeply drug use has affected anyone, but, Luken noted some witnesses were unable to recall simple conversations and facts that arose during the events surrounding Cook’s untimely — he was 33 — death, as well as the life-altering, likely for a very long time, futures of several others.
Nothing is more impressive in any venue than the bare facts of cause and effect.
If we want those targeted in the so-called fight against drugs, no better way could be found than to show them what occurs when they trade a few hours or days of ecstasy for a lifetime punctuated by fear and loathing.
— Bob Johnson
