Kids today are being exposed to drugs at younger and youngerages, which is why some concerned grownups are trying to make surethey know how to deal with the pressures early on.

And they aren’t afraid to ask questions, as evidenced whenSouthwest Mississippi Narcotics Enforcement Unit Deputy CommanderJohn Douglas spoke to fifth- and sixth-graders in the auditorium ofLipsey Middle School Tuesday afternoon.

“What if you snort too much cocaine?” one student asked.

“Why did people start making drugs?” another one asked.

“What drugs make you fuss a lot?” said a third.

And Douglas walked them through a presentation aimed ateducating them on the dangers of illegal substances and giving themthe confidence to say no when the temptation arises. He remindedstudents they can always say no.

“You have rights,” he told the group. “You’ll be faced withthings in the future, and you’re faced with things now, but youhave the right to change your mind. It’s okay for you to go backand do the right thing.”

The key to conquering drugs is for each individual to decide forthemselves that they won’t participate, he said.

“Say no and meaning it,” he said. “You know what you’re supposedto be doing and what you’re not supposed to be doing.”

Douglas pointed out that drugs can destroy a person’s life, andtold the children a story of someone he had known from a young agewho sought him out to help her a few years ago.

“She told me, ‘If you can’t help me, I don’t know what I’m goingto do,'” he said, adding that his old friend had spent all themoney she had, traded her jewelry and her car and all herpossessions, and all in order to buy crack cocaine.

“That’s what drugs will do to you,” he said. “She’s doing betternow, taking it day by day … If there’s anything in the world youcan ever do that would be of value to you, I’d tell you just don’tdo cocaine.”

And if the health and social value of staying off drugs is notenough, Douglas told the children, there’s also a higher law.

“It’s a fact that drugs will get you thrown in jail, it’ll costyou money, it’ll get you kicked out of school and make it hard toget a good job, and it’ll hurt your body,” he said. “But also, theBible says not to.”

The presentation was sponsored for the fifth and sixth grades atLipsey by the Junior Auxiliary’s Life Choices program.