As Vanguard News, we have always believed in the importance of spreading awareness on important issues in our community. Every year from Oct. 25 – Oct. 29, LTHS celebrates Red Ribbon Week. While students dress up based on a theme every day, Red Ribbon Week has a deeper message. 

Red Ribbon Week was first celebrated in 1985 when Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Erique “Kiki” Camarena was brutally murdered by drug traffickers in Mexico. 

In honor of his loss, his high school friends created Camarena clubs in California and wore red ribbons. This was later amplified to the national level with the help of National Family Partnership, a non-profit organization that aims to raise awareness about drug usage. 

Though many schools observe Red Ribbon Week, the marijuana use of students in the US remained unchanged at about 50% of students trying marijuana over the past five years based on data from americanaddictioncenters.org. 

On the bright side, however, the use of opioid drugs such as Vicodin among high school seniors has decreased from 5.5% in 2005 to 2.3% in 2018. 

Despite the decreasing trend of drug overuse by high schoolers in the US over the past years, the lack of drug addiction education and resources is still apparent. Based on a survey conducted by American Addiction Centers, 41.2% of high school students have not received proper drug education in school, while out of the total students that have attended proper drug education programs, 15%  received solely “scared-straight” teaching that did not provide research information about the long term effect of drugs. 

So as Red Ribbon Week ends, there is much more than dressing up according to themes and taking pictures with friends: we should consider the negative consequences of drug consumption and the families broken apart that cannot be recovered.

Source of Data: https://americanaddictioncenters.org/learn/drug-education-survey/