16th annual Drug Store Project in South Lake Tahoe

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - On Tuesday, April 2, 325 6th graders from South Tahoe Middle School, Zephyr Cove Elementary School and home-schooled youth, will spend the day at Lake Tahoe Community College going through the 16th annual Drug Store Project.

Since 2004, middle school students in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) have gone through the Drug Store Project (DSP), a day-long comprehensive drug prevention program designed to educate youth about the dangers of substance use and abuse.

Budget cuts back in 2009 eliminated the LTUSD Safety Coordinator position, but Lisa Huard, who had that job, didn't want to give up on the program and local youth. She wanted to continue to provide the valuable information DSP gives to the community's youth and worked with Tahoe Youth and Family Services to become the fiscal sponsor. (In her old job she also presented the teen drinking and driving program, Every 15 Minutes, twice a year to South Lake Tahoe youth).

While the outline of the program remains the same, the drug issues in the community change. Prior to DSP each year, Huard works with law enforcement, Barton Health, and agencies such as TYFS to have the program address the current issues in our community. They have always focused on gateway drugs and opioids/heroin in the area, but the past two years they have addressed an additional concern for youth, vaping.

Huard and the team also use the information provided by Barton’s Community Survey conducted every few years and they find it mirrors what youth and agencies are already sharing.

Participating DSP students take a survey both before and after the event to measure their knowledge growth and to also gather their opinions on the program and the concerns they have about drugs in the community.

"So many of our kids have lost someone they love due to drug use whether that be lung cancer from smoking, driving under the influence, and alcohol/drug overdose," said Huard. "They’ve also 'lost' people they love because they are no longer present in the family, or there is undue stress because the person they love has lost their job, home, etc. Our youth are dealing with a lot on a daily basis and drugs and alcohol are costing us in happiness, productivity, economically, and in lives. Our families are under stress and people self-medicate to cope. The people doing drugs are not bad people, but they do in fact try to resolve things through bad behaviors."

Tuesday's activities will include a series of vignettes, each about 11-minutes in length:

Station One: Gateway Drugs (Led by the Lake Tahoe Drug Free Coalition) - Students are provided with an overview of the drugs identified as “Gateway Drugs” (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana). The emphasis of this vignette is to provide all students with a foundation of information needed to understand the physical, social, and psychological effects of drug experimentation and use.

Station Two: The Pharmacy (Led by Law Enforcement) - The scene begins with a presentation by officers focusing on illegal drugs in our community. After the initial presentation students are given the opportunity to walk by a drug display. While observing the different displays of drugs, a pre-selected student takes a bag of “dope” and places it in their pocket. A local law enforcement officer witnesses the act and places the student under arrest for possession of illegal drugs.

Station Three: Juvenile Hall (El Dorado County Probation) - Students watch as a probation officer fingerprints, photographs, and books their fellow classmate. The probation officer then places the designated student into a jail cell. Juvenile hall officers then present to the audience what it is like to reside in juvenile hall.

Station Four: The Court Room (El Dorado County Superior Court, Public Defender, and District Attorney)- The student appears in court with a public defender before a judge and a prosecutor. The judge explains how the legal system deals with the possession of drugs.

Station Five: Drug Counseling (Tahoe Youth & Family Services) - A Substance Abuse Prevention Counselor demonstrates an assessment with classmates observing. The audience then receives a presentation with information on chemical addiction and the risks involved when individuals make a choice of using.

Station Six: The Party (Law Enforcement STHS Friday Night Live students who attended the Drug Store Project when they were in 6th grade, and Fire Dept. Medical Personnel) - The student is faced with the choice of whether to stay clean or to use drugs again. The student chooses to continue to use drugs and attends a party. While at the party, the student collapses on the floor from an apparent drug overdose. Police Officers and medical teams arrive on the scene, perform CPR, and transport the student by gurney.

Station Seven: The Emergency Room (Barton Health, Lake Valley Fire Protection District, So. Lake Tahoe Fire Department, acting “Grieving parents”) -
Once the student enters the emergency room, actual physicians and nurses attempt to revive the individual without success and the child dies. Adult actors who play “grieving parents” are called into the emergency room where the doctor informs the parents that their son/daughter has just died. We want the youth to understand how the choices they make affect all of those who love and care about them.

Station Eight: The Funeral (Kindred Hospice and Nevada Funeral Services) - A mock funeral is conducted by pastor and mortuary personnel. The “grieving parents” are asked to share the memories they had of their deceased child. Students are then given the opportunity to observe their friend one last time. As they pass by and look inside the coffin, students expect to see their classmate, but instead, they see themselves in a mirror. The pastor then seats all the children down and discusses the sobering reminder not let this happen to them or those they love.

Station Nine: “My Story” (TYFS) - This is a powerful, moving story told by individuals in our community who want to share their experiences to help youth understand how choices they make affect not only them but the many who
love and depend on them.

Station Ten: Debriefing (CHP and EDC Mental Health) - Students are given the opportunity to share and discuss their experiences with a law enforcement
officer and mental health professional.

Besides these vignettes, the students see the static display area with participation from the Tahoe Douglas Bomb Squad, California Conservation Corp, CalStar, South Lake Tahoe Police Dept. K9, Tahoe Douglas / EDC Search & Rescue, and Barton’s Marijuana and The Adolescent Brain.

The event could not be possible without donations in both time and money from the community. It continues to be financially supported due to successful grants and support from many service clubs in town.

This “grassroots” effort is the reason it continues in lieu of agency budget cuts. Businesses that provide in-kind donations enable the program to be unlike others: Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel provides lodging for out of town military participants in the amount of $1,400, Harrah’s Lake Tahoe in the amount of $10,000 provides the major food costs for students and volunteers the day of the event, Lake Tahoe Community College in the amount of $12,000 for facility space and personnel, and Camelot Party Rentals provides them with a discount of $200 towards rental needs.

Individuals throughout the community and agency personnel all participate the day of the event as individual volunteers and with agency support. Last year 1,800 hours of agency and volunteer hours were recorded on the event day alone.

It truly takes a village with events like DSP for the youth of the South Shore. The following help make DSP possible: Barton Health, California Conservation Corps, California Highway Patrol, CALSTAR, Cal Tahoe JPA, Camelot Party Rentals, Douglas County Search & Rescue, El Dorado Community Foundation, El Dorado County District Attorney, El Dorado County Mental Health, El Dorado County Probation Department,
El Dorado County Public Defender, El Dorado County Search & Rescue - Tahoe Team,
El Dorado Sheriff's Office, El Dorado County Superior Court, Harrah's Foundation,
Harrah’s HEROS, Joint Task Force Domestic Support-CD, Kindred Hospice, Kiwanis Club of Lake Tahoe, Kiwanis Club of Tahoe Sierra, Lake Tahoe Community College, Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel, Lake Tahoe Unified School District, Lake Valley Firefighter’s Association, Lake Valley Fire Protection District, Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada Funeral Services, Pro Leisure, South Lake Tahoe Fire Department, South Lake Tahoe Police Department, Soroptimist International of South Lake Tahoe, Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra, South Lake Tahoe Police Officer's Association, South Tahoe Drug Free Coalition, South Tahoe High School Friday Night Live, South Tahoe Middle School, Tahoe Optimist Club, Tahoe Douglas Fire Protection District, Tahoe-Douglas Rotary Club, Tahoe Youth & Family Services, Zephyr Cove.

To learn about donating and volunteering in future Drug Store Project events, or for just more information, visit http://makeschoolssafe.com/The_Drug_Store_Project.html.