I firmly believe education is an important part of the solution to reducing drug and alcohol abuse. To that end, Winning The Fight (WTF) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that holds weekly meetings for young substance abusers and their parents.
WTF consistently presents quality speakers, acts as facilitators for conversations between parents and children, parents to parents and young person to young person. Their mission statement: “WTF – Winning The Fight! is a non-profit, community based organization (501c3) that provides drug education, support and necessary resources to families that suffer from the disease of addiction.”
There is a wealth of knowledge, hard won life lessons and resource guidance available through their organization. They are on Facebook and have an Internet presence at www.wtf-winningthefight.org.
The Double Oak Police Department has been approached numerous times about obtaining help for drug addicted young people and is often asked about drug testing. Drug testing can be an important tool for facilitating a conversation with a young person about their substance abuse.
Generally speaking, people who are engaged in illicit behavior have little to no interest in telling the truth to their parents, medical personnel or law enforcement. Deceptive behavior goes hand in hand with addiction and oftentimes the addict and the parent know about the use but refuse to have a rational conversation about the ongoing destruction of their family.
If you are a concerned parent and would like a presumptive test kit they are available at www.wtf-winningthefight.org for the nominal fee of ten dollars. Please take the time to read the instructions before using the kit.
The kits being provided through WTF are for cocaine; marihuana; opiates; amphetamine; methamphetamine; benzodiazepine (anxiety/insomnia pills); barbiturates (tranquilizer/depressant); oxycodone (pain killer from the opiate family); MDMA (Ecstasy); Propoxyphene (pain killer, can depress breathing and damage heart).
Test kits are also available at your local pharmacy. I will emphasize again that the kits are presumptive in nature and a follow up visit with a physician should be scheduled as soon as possible.
An additional (and at this point anecdotal, but it makes sense) benefit to home testing is the ability of your child to tell their peers, “I can’t use, mom and dad are testing me tomorrow.” Test kits can be tools that enable young people to resist pressure to use illegal narcotics.
Please don’t fear confronting a loved one about substance abuse. Continued abuse generally results in eventual contact with law enforcement and almost inevitable incarceration for possession or the crimes that revolve around drug and alcohol abuse.
As this column was being written, the Grayson County Sheriff’s Department was preparing services for Deputy Chad Christian Key who was struck and killed by an alleged intoxicated driver near the intersection of US Hwy 82 and Bethany Rd. (east of Sherman, TX). Deputy Key had been on road patrol for 77 days. He was a husband, a father of three sons and an honorable person who wanted to serve the community.
Substance abuse has real and terrible consequences.
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