Kathy Marshall, an associate director of the Midwest Regional Center for Drug-Free Schools and Communities, comments on the difficulty of addressing alcohol abuse in rural areas where it has been tolerated in the past. Excerpted from the audio series Voices: The Midwest Audio Network for Drug-Free Schools and Communities, volume #1 (Midwest Regional Center for Drug-Free Schools and Communities, 1991).
"In many many rural communities I presume all across the country, we're really battling with is alcohol even a drug, and of course it is. The denial-alcohol in our area is a part of the social fabric. We really do need to be working parents and elected officials, clergy, everyone, to begin to see that this is a serious problem that we can't say thank goodness our students aren't on crack."
Date posted: 1996