Recommendation #12:
Involve local law enforcement agencies in all aspects of drug prevention: assessment, enforcement, and education. The police and courts should have well-established and mutually supportive relationships with the schools.
Community groups can:
- Support school officials who take a strong position against drug use.
- Support State and local policies to keep drugs and drug paraphernalia away from schoolchildren.
- Build a community consensus in favor of strong penalties for persons convicted of selling drugs, particularly for adults who have sold drugs to children.
- Encourage programs to provide treatment to juvenile first-offenders while maintaining tough penalties for repeat offenders and drug sellers.
Law enforcement agencies, in cooperation with schools, can:
- Establish the procedures each will follow in school drug cases.
- Provide expert personnel to participate in prevention activities from kindergarten through grade 12.
- Secure areas around schools and see that the sale and use of drugs are stopped.
- Provide advice and personnel to help improve security in the school or on school premises.
Drugs threaten our children's lives, disrupt our schools, and shatter families. Drug-related crimes overwhelm our courts, social service agencies, and police. This situation need not and must not continue.
Across America schools and communities have found ways to turn the tide in the battle against drugs. The methods they have used and the actions they have taken are described in this volume. We know what works. We know that drug use can be stopped.