Pubdate: Mon, 05 Sep 2005 Source: Gretna Breeze (NE) Copyright: 2005 Gretna Breeze Contact: http://www.gretnabreeze.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3918 Author: Mitch Beaumont, Breeze Managing Editor Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test) DRUG TESTING KITS AVAILABLE TO PARENTS The recent seizure of nearly 500 pounds of marijuana on Interstate 80 is the perfect example of why drug prevention programs need to start earlier than high school, said Sarpy County Sheriff Jeff Davis. In a press conference last week, Davis announced not only the seizure, which took place near mile marker 441, but also a new child drug prevention program in cooperation, initially, with the Gretna school district. Davis said Saturday night a sheriff's deputy observed three vehicles with Arizona license plates traveling together. The deputy stopped a beige pick-up truck for speeding and a lane violation, but the driver ran from the vehicle and as of last week hadn't been found. A warrant is out for the arrest of Juan Manuel Ramirez of Casa Grande, Ariz., Davis said. The deputy found 490 pounds of marijuana in the bed of the truck, not hidden in any way, Davis said. Saturday's seizure is the third in a couple of months for the sheriff's office, and by far the biggest in quite a while. The street value of the drugs is figured at nearly a half million dollars, he said. The new program, funded through an approximately $15,000 grant from www.notmykid.org, a private drug testing company, will provide testing kits to parents of all 159 seventh-graders in the Gretna school system, and likely the South Sarpy district as well. "The idea behind this is that parents obviously communicate with their kids when they receive these drug kits so it's an advantage in that respect," Davis. "It's a little bit of peer pressure. When your son or daughter goes out, they know this is sitting in the cabinet and at any time you're going to take that test kit out and have them give a sample." Lt. Russ Zeeb of the Sarpy County Sheriff's Office wrote the grant for the testing kits and said the sheriff's office will be working with the Papillion-La Vista and Bellevue school districts, and each city's police department, to distribute the testing kits in those schools as well. South Sarpy, Davis said, has already committed to distributing the kits after the pilot project in Gretna is complete. Seventh-graders are the subject of the testing kits, Davis said, because research has shown that students at that age are most prone to be introduced to illicit drugs. "I think the No. 1 thing is that this will cause these parents, through these school systems, to go home and talk to their kids," he said. "It gives the children an opportunity to say no and a reason to say no. If your kids are out and they are presented with any illicit drug, they can say no because they know their parents will test them when they get home." The main idea behind the drug testing grant, Davis said, is not to jail kids for possession or use of drugs, because that's the last thing the county wants to do. "We love it because you're sitting underneath a jail right now that is overpopulated, to say the least, and we are housing 40 people elsewhere throughout the state of Nebraska," he said at the press conference. "The predominant thing here isn't only drugs, but part of it is drugs, methamphetamine and other drugs. We need to address that at an earlier age. If you can get these kids into treatment and otherwise take care of that problem, I guarantee you in the long run that's going to free up beds and that's the only way that's going to free up beds." The testing kits are good for only one test, Davis said, but the hope is that parents will recognize the mere presence of a kit in the home as a deterrent and go out and purchase additional kits once the free one has been used. "By the next day, if it was me, I would have another one sitting on the shelf," he said. The drug testing kits will be introduced to Gretna parents at the methamphetamine seminar scheduled for 7 p.m. at Gretna High School on Sept. 7. Parents of Gretna seventh-graders will receive the kits then and Zeeb said any parents who can't attend can call the sheriff's office for their free kit. - --- MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman