But it's so easy to talk a child into doing something others are doing. Just make him think he will be laughed at if he refuses to participate, and more often than not, you have him hooked. That's how I got started on cigarettes, and it became an addiction that was hard to shake loose from. I've read of upstanding people who had no need for drugs, but took just one puff, one sniff or one pill and found themselves wanting more. In the end, the drugs took over their lives and ruined them.
Illegal drugs are powerful.
That's why they are illegal - and so addictive. Yes, we should do everything in our power to keep others from abusing drugs. I happen to believe the positive approach is more effective than threat of punishment. Peggy McCracken is an Enterprise writer and editor whose column appears each Tuesday. In obtaining a reprieve for Amtrak's Texas Eagle, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has won a victory.