PD Reports Over 1,000 Drug Cases This Year at Red Ribbon Week Kick Off

Some 70 Ambleside students, along with members of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council, Sheriff David Jones and two Assistant Police Chiefs gathered on the courthouse steps Monday morning to officially kick off Red Ribbon Week, which runs Oct. 27-31.

The theme this year is “love yourself, be drug free”, and holding up their hands in hearts, students attentively listened as the formal proclamation was read and SAPD Assistant Chief Robert Martinez quoted some statistics on drug abuse and seizures so far this year.

“From Jan. 1 till now, we have over 1,000 drug cases that we have filed here in Tom Green County,” Martinez said. “That amounts to almost four a day, and that’s a bunch.

Martinez said that so far this year, officers of the police department has seized over $45,000 in cash used in drug transactions, and cited a recent success that took a pound of crack off the city streets, valued at approximately $95,000, as well as an additional $5,000 cash confiscated in the bust.

“This bust alone will make a significant impact on our town,” he said. “I want to show you that we’re doing everything possible to exceed in doing our part in taking down the drug dealers leading to the cartel.”

As part of Red Ribbon Week, which promotes drug-free zones nationwide and empowers children to “Just Say No”, area schools will host pep rallies, assemblies and presentations put on by ADAC and other agencies.  

“This week we’ll be at many of the schools in the Concho Valley—not just in Tom Green County, but all over…” Paulette Schell, Prevention Director for ADAC, said. “…we’ve got our mascot, Rocko, the Drug-Free Bear, who comes out and encourages the kids and gives them high fives. We are going to have Concho Valley Gymnastics come out and do some tumbling, gymnastics routines, to demonstrate that our bodies are made for greatness, not for drugs.”

Schell explained that ADAC offers an education-based prevention program similar to the SAPD’s DREAM initiative, which targets children and teens and builds upon a foundation of protecting the body and brain.

“We start as young as we can,” Schell said. “In the schools we start at first grade, although we will talk to kindergarteners. We will talk to the younger students about keeping themselves safe. So, less about drugs and more about safety—wearing your seatbelt, wearing your helmet—because the major lesson at that age is, ‘your brain is the most important part of your body’. We build on that as the years go to then incorporate, ‘and drugs affect your brain’. So, it’s a lesson that builds year after year.”

Schell said drug abuse is oftentimes a family problem, and as students get older ADAC begins seeing them on an individual and family basis to work out any issues of drug abuse that may be present.

Each year, ADAC hosts the Red Ribbon kick off on the courthouse steps, starting with a reading of the proclamation. Both last and this year, Ambleside students took part in the activity, several starting off by singing patriotic songs to the crowd that had gathered. [[{"fid":"8715","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default"},"type":"media","attributes":{}}]]

“Ambleside School of San Angelo is a drug-free campus, so it’s important, I think, that the students hear the message, and I think it’s really neat to be able to open the…drug-free week with the proclamation,” Ambleside Principal Chris Sloan said.

“Our curriculum is quite a bit different from SAISD,” he continued. “I think they also have special days during the week, like pajama day and camera day, and things like that. Our students will get the red ribbons that they wear throughout the week and there will be conversations about being drug free, but we also have those conversations throughout the school year as well…we want our students to be aware of it all year round.”

Red Ribbon Week runs from Oct. 27-31. For more information on drug abuse and prevention, visit the ADAC website.