I’m always glad to see truth in our local newspapers. But I did cringe at one quotefrom this article.

[Shelby County Chief Probation Officer John] Miller said Shelby County is a great place to live and that peer pressure and curiosity are at the root of most of the county’s cases.

“We have mostly kids who are experimenters, not addicts,” said Miller. “And if you get to them with the right approach, you can get them to change.”

Mr. Miller’s right, these juveniles are not addicts, yet and many of them can be turned on to a different path. However he cannot deny the fact that the future addicts of Shelby County are among the kids that are coming through his office now.

The other thing that is implied in parts of this article is that the solution is early education, that’s part of the solution. But the real solution is a more comprehensive community approach to prevention…I won’t get on my soap box again, but these kinds of articles just raise the issue again. Prevention, prevention, prevention.

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