My school recently invited the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers to talk about the harmful effects of drugs and present some real cases.
We all assumed it was going to be boring. But to our surprise it was interesting. The speaker started by giving us something he said had been developed by the centre's doctors. He said it was used by people on recovery programmes to help them feel happy and relaxed. After 20 minutes, some students said they felt nothing, while others claimed to be relaxed. That's when we were told we had eaten vanilla leaves bought from a supermarket.
This experiment showed me teenagers who use drugs often think they are getting something out of it when all they have done is giving in to curiosity. For me this was a very inspiring talk.
Candice Tang Yik-lam, The Chinese Foundation Secondary School
From the Editor
Thank you for your letter, Candice. Drug abuse has certainly been in the spotlight recently and the biggest question in everyone's mind is how to reach youngsters. It seems this talk reached you and that is great.
