ARLINGTON, Wash. - Thursday night at 6:30 p.m., the Arlington Drug Awareness Coalition will meet at Weston and Lakewood High Schools to help parents identify the signs of teen drug use and paraphernalia in the home. In recent years, drug use has been on the rise in Snohomish County, and this group continues to work to help improve that disappointing reality.
Jessica Ronhaar is a member of the Arlington Drug Awareness Coalition. She works with a youth organization and says it's been difficult to watch young people get caught up with drugs.
"Seeing these kids that I've loved and cared for move into a place where they don't even know what's going on and they're harming themselves, and they are harming others, and their families are broken," Ronhaar said. "Our kids are important, and we need to work together to care for them and to love them and to help them because this is an issue that reaches everybody."
At Thursday's event, they will set up two mock bedrooms and allow parents to walk through and see if they can identify places where drug paraphernalia may be stored. Sometimes it is hidden in unexpected places like soda cans, laundry baskets, and glasses cases.
The event will include Arlington Police and school resource officers, as well as parents and other members of the community.
"We would love anyone to come. This is a community event. It's not just Arlington or just Lakewood or any of that, we want everybody to be educated," Ronhaar said. "I want these families to know that there is a way out. Our family dealt with it specifically, and it's hard. It's not a stigma or that it can happen to any family it doesn't matter who it is. It's not just a problem with the family; it's just a problem that the family needs to deal with and then our community can come together to help."
