Preventing Drug and Alcohol Abuse Is about Communities

This week, the Outlook (the local newspaper of Gresham, Oregon) published a story featuring a 17 year-old girl who almost died as a result of dangerous drinking. Kari Quinn, a recovering alcoholic, relapsed and spent a day drinking by the river with a 21 year-old man. At the end of the day, Kari knew she didn’t feel quite right, but her friend refused to take her home. Instead, he locked her in his car with the windows rolled up on a hot day. So drunk that she couldn’t get out of the car, Kari would have died unless she had been discovered. Paramedics on the scene said she was extremely lucky to be alive. In addition to the heat of the car, her blood alcohol level as 0.40 percent—five times the legal limit for adults age 21 and older.

Since this incident, Kari has been receiving treatment for her alcoholism from the Multnomah county Youth Addictions Team at LifeWorks Northwest Mental Health & Addition Services. The agency collaborates with East County schools to provide drug and alcohol treatment to teens.

The supervisor of this agency, Phil Muir, is featured in a film by the Greater Gresham Area Prevention Partnership. The film, “Community of Choice,” is set to premier on November 1st. The Partnership’s director, Cathy Sherick, summed up the film’s message, saying, “Drug and alcohol prevention is not about drugs and alcohol…it is about people and the communities they live in.” The film’s goal is to educate people that drugs and drug problems really do exist in the community, and to encourage everyone to get involved.

Mr. Muir, a recovering heroin addict who has been sober for over 23 years, works to reach kids with his voice of experience, and it’s not an easy job. Not only to teenagers tend to think they are invincible and live in the moment, but, Muir says, addiction is “the type of disease that makes you believe you don’t have a disease.”

Kari Quinn, a client of Mr. Muir’s program, didn’t fully commit to treatment until she almost died. Muir continues to help kids like Kari because he feels it is a privilege to do so. “They’re our future…If they get the chance, they’ll perform. It’s seeing that they get that chance. … This is a community, this is an environment that we all live in. We have an obligation to protect our children, and if that means dealing with a part of life that we’d rather not admit exists, so be it.” (Source: TheOutlookOnline.com)

posted by Vee @ 10:35 AM