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Teens share anti-drug message
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Ma-nila Taylor, a junior at Warren G. Harding High School, made the three-hour bus trip from Trumbull County to the Ohio Statehouse on Monday to share one message: Don’t do drugs.
“Your life is more important than wasting it on drugs and alcohol and smoking,” the 17-year-old said. “It’s more important to make something of yourself, and staying drug-free, you will be able to be successful in life.”
She was one of several hundred teens who rallied in Columbus on Monday, walking nearly a mile through the downtown business district to Capitol Square to draw attention to “the majority” of young people who refrain from using drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.
The event was organized by the Ohio Youth-Led Prevention Network and the Drug Free Action Alliance, with participation of schools across the state, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Orman Hall, director of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.
The group chanted and sang on the west steps of the Statehouse and listened to testimonials on the importance of avoiding illicit substances.
“The attorney general can talk about drugs, and the governor and the principal or the teacher, but it’s much more effective when you do that, peer to peer, student to students, teen-ager to teenager,” DeWine told the crowd. “... Every day in Ohio, we lose four people who die of an accidental overdose of drugs. ... What you’re doing, frankly, is the most-effective thing, and that is speaking out and talking to other students in your class, other students in your school.”
Hall, who heads a state agency that helps residents with addiction issues, added: “We have a lot of work to do. Drugs and alcohol are tremendous problems in our society. We know that you are the drug-free majority. Let’s make sure that you are not the silent drug-free majority.”
Taylor Bennington, a freshman at Wooster High School, said drugs are a problem among his classmates, particularly marijuana obtained from friends or even parents.
“Drugs and alcohol are becoming a major problem at Wooster High School, and I believe it’s time to stop them,” he said. “It’s getting worse, and I think it’s time we take it seriously.”
He added, “You shouldn’t do it because it’s harmful to your health. It’s worse to smoke marijuana than it is to smoke tobacco. And that’s what you’ve got to tell them.”