Substance Abuse Committee Addresses Early Prevention

State lawmakers are addressing the issues of meth and prescription drug abuse. Today the state legislature’s new substance abuse committee is meeting for the first time. Committee members plan to focus on South Dakota’s biggest drug issues at their earliest stages. Jim White is a state senator and chair of the committee. He wants lawmakers to address community early prevention and intervention. “As we move forward, I want to encourage us not to look at the disciplines of treatment or whatever that is. Let’s look, if we can, and keep on task of how we can educate our young people to recognize the danger signals of what these people have gone through, and in many cases, their testimonials say they were 13 to 16 when they had that opportunity," says White. White says some suggestions for further action include implementing more drug prevention programs into school curricula. He is also encouraging schools to have resource officers. White hopes to incorporate school districts in future hearings.