Last week I was very sad to hear that a sixth-year child was caught smoking drugs in the school bathrooms. The next day I learned of an eighth-grader who offered drugs to his classmates. This news worried me a lot, and I had no sleep. Over and over again I wondered to myself, what can I do? What should I do?

Many times I have seen that some students destroy their lives, their studies, their personal and family relations, as well as any possibility of future success because they fall into the trap of drugs.

Ten years ago I retired as a teacher of higher education and started teaching math at the middle school level. In the first year, I learned of a similar drug case, and I went to the school authorities to ask what we would do. The answer surprised me: “That’s society, there’s nothing we can do”: I totally disagreed with it. When authority is defeated and does not want to intervene, minimizing and in some cases hiding incidents of this type, it will only aggravate the problem.

Society has placed in the teachers and school authorities the great responsibility of cultivating and caring for the most valuable treasure of all the families and of the nation, this is its young people. We can not turn a blind eye to these problems and ignore them. On the contrary, we should alert parents and raise awareness among young people of the serious dangers of drug addiction. To deny the existence of a problem or to pretend that it does not exist does not solve it; but on the contrary, aggravates it. It is a task for all adults to protect with all our strength, with all our heart, with a clear and determined strategy that protects our students from this serious problem.

If a friend offers you drugs he is not a friend, a good friend does not endanger your life and your future.

Take advantage of this great educational opportunity you have today, your future and that of your family depend on what you do today. Do not make a mistake that you’ll regret all your life

Do you think having a drug-addicted child is what your parents want when they send you to school?

And if you have already fallen into this problem, seek help. Lean on someone you can trust, a close relative, your teachers, school or spiritual counselors. I want to tell you that with will, determination, and perseverance, other people have come out of drugs. There is a thought that I want to share:

“God changes caterpillars into butterflies, sand into pearls and coal into diamonds by using time and pressure. He is working on you too“- Rick Warren.