Bringing awareness to drug misuse

To the Editor:

Being a teenager, it is very difficult watching a friend choose to take drugs. Once my friend made the choice to use drugs, the choice was also made to stop being my friend. I was hurt and very concerned for my friend. I decided that I wanted to help my peers make healthy choices. That is why I joined MCSAP Coalition and Empower.

This week, Oct. 23 to Oct. 31, you will be seeing red ribbons around our school and community as we celebrate Red Ribbon Week. The Red Ribbon Campaign in October brings awareness to the destruction that drug misuse causes in our community. Displaying a red ribbon on your tree trunk, front door, business, or elsewhere is a simple way to show your support for substance misuse prevention in [city or county]. During the week, we will also promote mental health awareness, because we know we make healthier decisions when we are mentally healthy. Our Empower group, the youth segment of the Martin County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, is dedicated to preventing substance use among our peers and inspiring them to make healthy choices. So this week, besides decorating, we will also make announcements at school highlighting famous people who have overcome challenges with mental health or substance abuse. Then our dress-up days for the week will include wearing neon on Tuesday because our future is too bright for drugs, wearing a favorite college team jersey to show we are teaming up against drugs, and wearing pajamas to school on Thursday as we follow our dreams and remain drug-free.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29, we and the Martin County Sheriff’s Department will be collecting unused prescriptions at the Hy-Vee Pharmacy to make sure meds are properly disposed so they can’t be misused. Flushing is not an environmentally safe way to dispose of any type of medication, drug, or supplement. Then, on Halloween, we will be at Bird Park on Woodland Avenue with some glow sticks that let people know most youth in Martin County are making healthy choices.

If you want to help us as we work to decrease substance misuse among our area youth, you can either donate at https://bit.ly/MCSAPMN or MCSAP Coalition, P.O. Box 287, Fairmont, MN 56031.

Tiffany Lowry,

Junior at Fairmont High School