Students holding annual March Against Meth

Wow. The young ones at Lake Pend Oreille, the alternative high school in Sandpoint, Idaho; are vigorous and brave. They are sharing their diverse stories from their young lives with all of us at a 10:30 a.m. assembly at the Sandpoint Community Hall on March 26. The featured speaker will be Dr. Gary Hopkins, drug prevention specialist, but the impact speakers will the kids. The event will culminate with a march across the Long Bridge.

The assembly has an honor student that was a top athlete and not doing any drugs in high school. Shelley was in college, started on meth and a “living hell” began for her. Shelley will share her “life story” leading up to an explosion of a meth lab that left her badly burnt. LPO students will share experiences, poems, and testimonials that come straight from their hearts.

If you, like me a year ago, wanted to be there to support this school and young ones in their efforts to stopping the use of meth and help Sandpoint become a safer community — then you are in for a day that might stick within you forever. The painful and emotional stories may be tough to take but the growing risk to our young people across the United States requires that each community step up their efforts to inform and educate.

The teens are telling their story: it can be a dad in jail caused by meth addiction.

It can be a girl telling how she grew up in a meth home and “cooking” meth together with her dad. Or it can be the dad telling how he got started, why he was held at a gunpoint and how he “got out of the drug life he was living.”

Several of the young ones tell how they are clean and this is a victory for a drug free life — it is so commendable that they are willing to share their struggle. They are going to feel the addiction coming several times during the rest of their lives, and some days are going to be very bad with the addiction trying to pull them back to the hellish drug addicted lives they led. Hopefully, they will continue to have a life free of drugs and the associated nightmares.

After the March Against Meth the Elks Club will serve hot cocoa, Idaho Meth Project will provide black bracelets to all the marchers, and some great information will be provided by the Sandpoint Teen Center, Bags of Love, and NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness).

I hope we — the grownups can show our support for this school and all of our young people. Yes, we care about you and other kids and young adults’ daily life, and that is why we are marching with you on March 26. Thank you LPO for what you and others do for our community — you rock.

MARGARETA LARSON

Sandpoint