Again, it is important that the guest respect the role of the Master Teacher as a helper who can make a difference in preventing substance abuse. Discouraged youth, looking for someone who needs them and a place to belong are an easy touch for seduction into the drug trade. The spiritually depressed of any socioeconomic level make great drug customers. P arents struggle daily, trying to keep their kids from joining the drug trade. With few other opportunities in isolated neighborhoods in the inner-city and rural areas, it's difficult to find ongoing positive activities to keep teens from trouble.
Parents warn, threaten, and beg their kids to stay away from drugs.
The discouragement of living in poverty and the seduction of the drug bosses, unfortunately, overpower the best intentions of parents. The kids are especially vulnerable as they struggle through the difficult years of junior high school. Many are already stereotyped as problems because of where they live. Many are enticed to drug use. They get hooked early and are often forced to sell drugs in order to support their own habit.