Troubled Teens Resources

“Those engaged in battling meth and other drug use do so on different fronts. Some, like Not In Our Town and Friday Night Live, fight the war mostly through prevention and education.
[…]
Last year, at least 60 percent of kids arrested and convicted used drugs, said Brandon Thompson, Glenn County’s chief probation officer.”

One of the central tenets of the Not in Our Town philosophy is to target teen age drug abuse with a three pronged attack: prevention, intervention, and Treatment.

All too often the fight against teen age drug abuse is only engaged at the third stage - treatment. The objective of Not in Our Town is prevention and intervention through education, so that treatment is less and less needed.

Some feel the program’s message is too rough for pre-teens, but the program’s founder strongly differs.

“But part of the message, and the reason he wants to take it to younger kids, is to show how vulnerable they are. He illustrates that with a story about a 12-year-old boy who first got meth from a man who was looking for marijuana. The boy had pot and the man offered to trade meth for the weed. At the end of the story, he shows kids a picture of his son clinging to life three years later.

“This is when it gets real,” Bettencourt said. “I’ve been there, I know what I’m doing. This is not a game, not a Friday Night LIve skit, it’s real…”

In one presentation to a group a 6th graders, Bettencourt asked if they knew anyone who got high. Over a dozen kids raised their hands.

“They gave me the most descriptive, concise images of somebody using the drug,” he said. “It was bone-chilling to me.”
(source)