Rep. Hartzler leads R-5 anti-drug assembly

Thursday, April 13, 2017
Retired professor, Dr. Wayne Williams, makes a point at a Wednesday morning assembly at Nevada High School. Williams spoke of the woman pictured in front of him, his daughter, Jessica, who died of a heroin overdose in Feb., 2016. On the stage with Williams are R-5 principal, Dr. Jerry Whalen, Captain Kip Bartlett of the Mid-Missouri anti-drug task force, and U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler. Hartzler organized this one hour program which, over three days, is being presented to a number of schools across Hartzler’s district.

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler of Missouri’s fourth district led a one-hour anti-drug assembly for Nevada R-5 students on Wednesday. This was part of a three-day tour through her district as she brought two speakers to seven high schools.

Hartzler explained why she felt compelled to organize these sessions, introduced the two speakers and provided a wrap up message.

“I have organized a number of job fairs to put together employers and prospective employees,” Hartzler told the assembly. “I assumed we had a shortage of jobs but employers tell me they have a good number of entry level positions that go begging.”

Aware of the unemployment rate in various communities she was surprised by this response and given a dose of reality.

“As one employer told me, ‘Oh, we get lots of applicants but either they can’t pass a background check or a drug test,’” Hartzler said.

This prompted her to find the speakers and organize the tour of schools in an effort to wake up and warn students about the dangers of drug use, with a special focus on the abuse of prescription medications.

Hartzler affirmed the need for addicts to get help in breaking the addiction. However, if they are replaced by another generation of addicts, she said our society will continue to pay huge costs in terms of dollars and the lives of individuals and their families.

Punching the air with her finger Hartzler said, “I mean it when I say, you and millions of other young people nationwide hold the key to addressing this huge drug abuse problem.”

She urged the assembled to be the generation which reject’s drug and alcohol abuse and helps break the back of addiction and the devastation it brings.

That devastation was made real by the speakers Hartzler had located and brought to each school.

The first was Captain Kip Bartlett, who has been in law enforcement for 19 years and currently is with the Mid-Missouri Drug Task Force.

“We’re the guys you see in videos kicking in the doors, making undercover buys, wearing plain clothes, while targeting drug dealers,” began Bartlett.

When he said, “Somebody you know is using drugs,” silence fell over the room.

Bartlett repeated those words and had every eye in the room on him as he added, “Somebody in this room is a dealer. Maybe more than one. And don’t pretend. A lot of you know who it is.”

The drug task force leader told of how 90 percent of crime in Missouri is in some way tied to drugs.

“Missouri has long been number one in methamphetamines but folks aren’t cooking it as much as they did before,” said Bartlett. “It’s cheaper to import it from Mexico.”

He went on to speak about marijuana and then prescription drugs and heroin.

Bartlett described the marijuana being sold today as being nothing like what was sold in the 1960s. He described today’s version as being 100 percent THC which makes it “dangerous, addictive and a gateway drug.”

“You may think getting high or being stoned is cool,” said Bartlett. “But nobody gets through school or gets and holds a great job or is a good spouse or parent or invents something or makes this world a better place by doing drugs and being wasted.”

Bartlett told the assembly if they want to lose everything they hold dear, including their life, then they should be sure to become an addict.

Said the captain, “You’ll end up like so many I find. You’ll be sitting in a bathtub or hunched up in the corner of an abandoned building, with a needle sticking out of your arm. Oh, and one other thing. You’ll be dead.”

Bartlett provided a transition to the other presenter by speaking of how prescription medications can be good when used as prescribed and used only by the one for whom they are prescribed.

The final speaker, Dr. Wayne Williams, a retired professor of education at Central Missouri State University, currently resides in Sedalia. As he stepped forward, a large poster sized portrait was placed in front of the podium.

Pointing to the portrait Williams began. “This is how I like to remember my daughter, Jessica. On Feb. 10, 2016 she became a statistic, one of those Captain Bartlett was describing. She was found dead with a needle sticking out of her arm, dead due to a heroin overdose.”

As a parent, he always thought it would be someone else’s child and not his own. Williams challenged students who may think addiction couldn’t happen to someone they know or affect the student’s family.

He wondered aloud how rich each of the students would be if they received a dollar for every time each was asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Said Williams, “How many times have you heard someone say, ‘I want to grow up to be a pusher, a drug dealer.’ Or how about, ‘I want to be an addict, lose my friends, family and future, think only of my next fix and die young with a needle in my arm. Yeah, that’s for me.’”

Comparing 2016 statistics, Williams said well over 50,000 people died of an opioid overdose while 36,000 died in highway traffic deaths and 34,000 died nationwide in homicides.

“That number of overdose deaths is just under the number of casualties in the whole Vietnam War,” said Williams.

In using pain medication, he said the turning point comes when it is no longer about pain relief but about enjoying the feeling the drug gives. He described how his daughter followed the all too common path from prescription drugs to other opiates, especially heroin.

“I couldn’t save my daughter but if I can save one of you or have you intervene with someone you know, then something good can out of her death and my pain,” said Williams.

In her closing, Hartzler said, “Embrace life: those of your family, your friends and your own.”

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