March 22, 2008

Tamaqua Reality Tour drug prevention program will have its kick off on March 27

The Tamaqua Area Drug Prevention Program, in partnership with the Rape and Victim Assistance Center in Pottsville, will present its first Reality Tour on March 27.

The tour will be held at Lehigh Carbon Community College's Morgan Center in Tamaqua and will start promptly at 6 p.m.

This initial Tour will be closed to the public, but the tour will be open to the public beginning April 24. Tours are scheduled on a monthly basis. Registration forms are available throughout the community.

The Reality Tour Drug Prevention Program was created by Norma Norris of Butler, Pennsylvania in 2003 and is now promoted through the non-profit organization CANDLE, Inc.

The Rape and Victim Assistance Center in Pottsville has purchased The Reality Tour Program for use in Schuylkill County.

The tour is recommended for children ages 10 and up when accompanied by a parent. Advance reservation is required as space is limited and parental consent is required.

Participants will follow the fate of a fictitious teen addicted to heroin. The tour includes an arrest and prison experience as well as dramatic emergency room overdose scenes and a funeral home scene. A narrative by the ''addict'' precedes each scene and includes the constant reminder to the audience that ''I'm just like you.''

Each attendee will be given a drug abuse profile to adopt during the program, so that participants can become familiar with different addictive drugs as well as gateway drugs.

At times attendees share their "story'' of addiction in small group settings. Participants will have the opportunity to talk with an addict in recovery at the end of the program. Attendees can commit to a drug-free life by tracing their handprints on the Reality Tour banner.

The Reality Tour was developed as a response to the rising drug use among teens who mistakenly think they won't become addicted. The original Reality Tour was so widely accepted that at times the Butler Tour had experienced a two-month waiting list for reservations (newspaper articles at www.candleinc.org).

The Reality Tour will also touch on methamphetamines, fast becoming the new illegal drug of choice. It is a much harder habit to overcome than heroin and associated with violent tendencies. Law enforcement currently encountering meth users state, ''You will wish you child was on heroin!''

Upcoming Tamaqua Reality Tour dates are April 24 and May 29. Later dates will be determined upon room availability at LCCC.

Registration forms are available at the Tamaqua Borough Building, Tamaqua Public Library, Lehigh Carbon Community College, Dr. Lisa Banning or by contacting Diana Sweigert at (570) 778-2316.