When a high school junior suffered a drug overdose and died at home on October 30, 2004, the community of Manhattan Beach, California, struggled to understand. Parents gathered informally in living rooms looking for answers, afraid for their own children. The victim's family blamed the friends who accompanied him that night, the parents who hosted a party he had attended earlier in the evening, and, eventually, his public high school. They accused school administrators of turning a blind eye to student alcohol and other drug use, and doing nothing to save or prevent his death, and eventually filed a law-suit against the school district. The superintendent called an emergency meeting and established a task force to analyze district substance abuse programs. School administrators and community members came together to institute reforms that could prevent future tragedies.
Tackling Adolescent Substance Abuse in Hong Kong: Where We Should and Should Not Go
