They say you can never have too much of a good thing. In this case, the good thing is learning about bad things.

Beaver Area High School held another drug awareness assembly September 24 in the high school auditorium. The assembly featured Jill Perry, a counselor, with grades 8-12 attending. The assembly highlighted some of the main focuses of drug abuse: addiction, the effect on family and friends, and reaching out for help.

Starting the 30-minute assembly, a video told the story of a young girl whose mother was addicted to drugs. After the video, Ms. Perry explained that drug addiction was not simply an addiction but a mental disorder.

Many people mistakenly throw around the word “addiction” in a negative manner, but those who suffer the disorder simply cannot help but to feel as though they need the drugs. Reclassifying addiction as a mental disease helps people address the issue in a more sensible manner. They see addicts as those who need help, not criminals.

While the typical drug assembly consists of numerous mentions of peer pressure and “just say no!” this assembly was more realistic with Ms. Perry acknowledging the fact that some teens are inevitably going to experiment with drugs and drinking. This was an important thing to admit to a room full of teenagers; it helps the teens relate to the speaker and sparks interest in what Ms. Perry was talking about. Students felt more understood.

“I feel like it helped take down the idea that you’re going to be looked down on from an adult for choices you make when you’re young and getting your feet wet in life. Every adult has been in our shoes, too,” senior Halie Crider said.

The assembly was well-executed and extremely informative for the audience, giving us insight into what we should be cautious of and how to be understanding of those in the situation.

“We want to destroy the stigma around the term ‘addict’ and try to instill the idea of the addiction not being the person’s fault,” Ms. Perry said.