Drug seminar is worth investment

Have you ever peered into the vacant eyes of a person high on drugs? Have you watched helplessly as their behavior becomes more and more erratic? Have you witnessed the pain that their choices inflict on friends and family members?
If you’ve been touched in those ways, you know the horrors of watching a life disintegrate under the influence of illicit drugs.
But even then, you may not fully comprehend the power of some of today’s potent synthetic drugs. Those designer drugs, such as “bath salt cocaine” and “synthetic marijuana potpourri,” have the capacity to land users in the hospital – or, worse yet, in the morgue.
A consortium of local groups is concerned enough about this latest scourge that they’ve banded together to bring a nationally known speaker to Vandalia to address the problem. And if you’re concerned, you, too, can participate.
Presenting the six-hour program will be Bruce R. Talbot, a Bolingbrook resident who is a recognized expert on emerging drugs of abuse. He writes a quarterly report to the Illinois State Police about drug abuse, has testified before Congress about federal drug control legislation and he’s been interviewed for stories by the national media regarding the amped-up dangers of these new drugs.
The program will be presented next Thursday, Nov. 7, starting at 8:30 a.m. and concluding at 3:30 p.m. (with a break for lunch) at First Baptist Church in Vandalia.
Already, more than 120 people have pre-registered for the seminar, including school officials, counselors, first responders, health care officials, and law-enforcement personnel. There’s still plenty of room for other interested people to participate. And the price is right – it’s free, thanks to the support provided by the seminar sponsors. Those sponsors include Fayette County Interagency Council, Vandalia Chamber of Commerce, Vandalia Rotary Club and Soroptimist International of Vandalia.
Admittedly, it requires a major commitment to attend a day-long seminar, but winning the battle against illicit drug abuse requires extraordinary measures. We are losing too many productive and promising individuals to the debilitating effects of drug abuse.
To register, call 283-1780 or email Mary Schulze at [email protected].
By working together with experts such as Talbot, we can get the training necessary to save our young people from falling victim to the new synthetic drugs that are becoming more prevalent here.
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