Students from all three Mineral County schools got together last Tuesday, Oct. 24 to listen to a motivational speaker as part of the drug awareness Red Ribbon Week. The Superior High School bleachers were full as a few students from all three schools started the afternoon with a little skit put together by Kris Minard from Montana Office of Public Instruction.

The skit began after Alberton senior, Isaac Warren warmed up the crowd with a few rounds of “the wave”, and group cheers. He played the part of a teenager offering e-cigarettes to a few friends, Gerald Peterson, Aly English, and Wesley Buchanan sitting on a couch watching TV. Sara Knapp and Bailey Milender played an angel and devil as the subconscious argues to “do it” or “not to do it”. Meanwhile, Anna Sanford was the voice of iphone’s Siri who relayed the dire facts about the use of e-cigarettes.

Facts include the tobacco companies who use advertising tactics like making kid-friendly flavors such as green apple and cotton candy. Also, the cost of smoking e-cigarettes can be almost $3,000 a year, not to mention the social costs of losing friends and being suspended from school sanctioned activities.

E-cigarettes are now the most commonly used form of tobacco among youth in the United States according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. They are battery-operated smoking devices often designed to look and feel like regular cigarettes. They use cartridges filled with liquid that contains nicotine, flavorings, and other chemicals. Manufacturers don’t have to report ingredients in e-cigarettes and so users don’t know what’s actually in them.

In addition to the skit, Mineral County Sheriff Tom Bauer spoke to the crowd about the perils of drug use. He asked students if they get prescriptions drugs out of the medicine cabinet at home if they thought that if that was legal? Several student raised their hands but he corrected them stating that taking prescription drugs that belong to someone else is a felony offense and can land a person in jail.

“Make a lifelong commitment to be drug free,” he said. “I see the negative affects drugs have on people in Mineral County every day. You lose friends, jobs, your home and your left sitting on an island, alone.”

He also announced that the department will be receiving a drug dog with federal funds made available through forfeited drug money. The dog will be arriving this spring.

All three schools also held dress up days where students wore different outfits to highlight various aspects of living drug free including “Shade Out Drugs” and they wore sunglasses; “Be a Hero and not a Zero” and dressed like their favorite superhero.