Lately, the students of Walpole High School are being bombarded with messages supporting drug and alcohol awareness. The Walpole Coalition for Drug & Alcohol Awareness is sponsoring a video competition to make students more aware of the dangers of substance abuse. Inside of school, there was a video played after the morning announcements about heroin addiction, and every sophomore in the school had to take a survey organized by Michigan State University about drugs. The campaigns are all supporting the same message: Don’t do drugs.

The video competition sponsored by the Walpole Coalition For Alcohol & Drug Awareness has been implemented to raise kids’ awareness about the dangers of drug and alcohol use. Any Walpole resident in grades 6 throught 12 is eligible to enter the contest, even if they do not attend Walpole schools. The competition will be judged on content and creativity, not the quality of the video because of equipment. The final videos must be completed and uploaded to the Walpole Coalition YouTube page by April 23 so the voting can begin. The first, second, and third place videos will be posted on the Walpole Coalition website, and the winners will recieve prizes of $250, $100 and $50, respectively. The goal of the contest is to make teens and kids aware of the dangers of substance abuse, and it hopes to convey that message through the students’ videos. The videos can be any genre or story plot the maker chooses. By getting kids involved in drug and alcohol prevention and showing the dangers of becoming addicted to drugs, the Walpole Coalition wants to lead students away from the use of alcohol and drugs. Recovery center for alcoholics may include behavioral therapies, which are very beneficial for the addicts.

There was also a video played after the daily morning announcements that followed the story of a 23 year old girl from Massachusetts, Alyssa, who became addicted to heroine after experimenting with prescription pills. In the video, Alyssa told her story about how heroine ruined her life and almost killed her. It was a very deep, and somber video for a Thursday morning, but made the point that drugs are bad.

Furthering the campaign against drugs, every sophomore in Walpole High was required to come in on Tuesday April 10 for P.L.C. During this time, the sophomores had to take an anonymous survey run by Michigan State University, which mostly asked questions about how frequently students use drugs. The survey administrators from Michigan State emphasized the anonymity of the survey to ensure that the students would answer the questions truthfully for accurate survey results.

After being pelted with messages and questions about drugs everywhere they look, some students are getting irritated. Sophomore Olivia O’Hara said “I think they are getting their message across, but in a very dramatic way.” The over-exaggeration of many of the ways the school gets the drug message across is common with many of the anti-drug advertisements students see, and it is also sure to be the way at least some of the videos from the contest turn out. The community is clearly doing all it can, especially with a broken economy and few resources, to keep drugs away from students and out of Walpole.

Drug rehab centers are providing free seminars and consultation to people who are suffering from drug addiction. They are holding these seminars to create awareness among youth about how drug addiction can be combated and dealt with. Here are a few resources to check in 2019 where you can find the best drug rehab centers using which you can get your life back on track by getting yourself detoxified.