Harford held its largest annual event in drug awareness and training Tuesday at C. Milton Wright High School, encouraging teachers and students to reverse peer pressure.
The drug symposium welcomed about 250 people, mostly teachers and social workers, who separated into groups for workshops, lectures and information booths on topics ranging from bullying to anger management to gang identification. About 30 students also attended.
“They are being empowered and trained sort of to do the peer pressure thing,” said Joe Ryan, head of the county?s office of drug control policy. “When people say, ?Why are you doing drugs? Because everyone?s doing it,? that?s a false statement.”
So, for instance, instead of looking at the latest available statistic that 39.1 percent of Harford 12th-graders smoked marijuana in the past year in a negative way, one can read it as 60.9 percent of 12th-graders did not smoke marijuana in that time. Such positive thinking was the message of keynote speaker Lee Rush, executive director of justCommunity Inc., a nonprofit group based in Quakertown, Pa.
Ryan said teenagers in wealthy areas such as Bel Air are most at risk.
“You have a brand-new BMW dealership, you have Liberty Travel at the Harford Mall ? all the economic indicators point to there?s a lot of disposable income,” he said.
The Bel Air ZIP codes had 473 people admitted for drug treatment last fiscal year, while Edgewood had 259, Abingdon had 225 and Aberdeen had 202 to make up the top four areas.
When parents cough up money on Friday or Saturday night, “a lot of kids, instead of spending it on movies, popcorn and sandwiches, they?re buying cases of beer,” Ryan said.
The number of drug-related school suspensions has been steady in recent years, according to Sharon Grose, assistant supervisor of drug prevention in schools.
