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FSPD officers present drug seminar at Fort Scott High School
Local high school students, some of whom may not have known anything about drug abuse, will no longer be caught unprepared.
Fort Scott Police Department school resource officer Toby Nighswonger, in cooperation with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, presented four drug education awareness seminars to Fort Scott High School students during the past two weeks. The educational sessions, which were open to the public, provided much needed drug-related facts to students, faculty and staff.
In addition to Nighswonger, Fort Scott Police Officer Lance Fabrizius spoke to the groups of students. The Nighswonger-Fabrizius tag team provided the youth with information about several types of drugs, in addition to explaining to the listeners what effects the specific drugs could have on anyone who uses them.
Nighswonger said although he has never personally used illegal drugs, he has seen their effects and has been to many training sessions that have equipped him with extensive drug-related knowledge.
Methamphetamine can have many ill-effects on a drug users body, the two officers told the students. This drug can cause increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, increased body temperature, rigid muscle tone, dilated pupils and slow reaction to light. In addition, it can also cause a person to develop acne or mood disturbances and delusions. The delusions, Nighswonger said, can sometimes cause a methamphetamine user to feel as if he or she has bugs crawling on his or her face. Because of this feeling, the user will try to scratch the imaginary bugs off, creating sores.
As with any drug, the officers said that even using methamphetamine one time can have lasting effects on a person's brain. The two officers stressed to the students that it only takes experimenting with drug use one time to ruin a person's life, adding that a person can even die after one experimental drug use.
Nighswonger and Fabrizius said marijuana is the most frequently used drug in schools today. According to a booklet distributed at the drug seminar, this usage may be related to misconceptions that parents have.
"Forty-two percent of parents who used marijuana as a teenager do not consider it a crisis when their own children use the drug," the booklet said. "Consequently, this attitude has helped increase marijuana usage. One-time usage among adults ages 18 to 25 increased from 5.1 percent in 1965 to 53.8 percent in 2002. Ironically, junior high adolescents are more influenced by their parents than their peers. This rise in teenage marijuana use may be directly related to this casual attitude held by today's parents."
Nighswonger said although most teenagers are under a misconception that this drug is harmless, the truth is quite the opposite. Today, he said, marijuana is 20 times more potent than it was several years ago. In addition to its potency, marijuana is harmful in many other ways.
"Research does not support the idea that marijuana is harmless," the drug awareness booklet said. "Studies indicated that marijuana usage leads to crime, drug dependence and the use of other drugs. Marijuana is a gateway drug that can lead to severe health problems."
Also during the seminar, the officers educated the crowd about several different date rape drugs. Students were encouraged to avoid attending parties, and if they do go to parties, Nighswonger stressed the importance of guarding their beverages, especially the young women, he said.
The students were shown before and after pictures of methamphetamine users. The after photos, sometimes taken only months following the before photos, showed distinct deterioration of appearance including wrinkles, pallid skin tone, open sores and rotting teeth.
Finally, Fabrizius brought Police service dog Silvy into the auditorium to show those assembled how the dog searches and finds drugs.