Surveys from throughout the years have shown that Belize is losing the war on drug use amongst teenagers.
One of the last drug prevalence surveys conducted among the student population was done in 2003 - which revealed that 74 percent of students were alcohol drinkers while 23 percent were marijuana users and 39 percent smoked tobacco.
And while those statistics are worrisome, there are schools such as Wesley College - that promote the importance of drug awareness through activities that educate their students. It's the school's 14th annual Red Ribbon Week - an initiative that had started back in 1999 and has now become a tradition for the institution.
We checked in today:
Elizabeth Goff, School Counselor
"Red Ribbon is drug prevention; we are focusing on drug prevention, helping our students to look at the choices through information sharing, through the other activities that we are doing. It's a school wide campaign. It's the time of the year in October when as a school we are all united; one voice, one message - say no to drugs!"
"We started yesterday with our official opening as we always do and this year our guest speaker was the Mayor of Belize City Mr. Darrell Bradley and we were very happy to have him open our week. Today is supposed to be Say No To Drugs Day, it's a fun day to say no to drugs - kids get a chance to wear sun shades during the day, not in class time; symbolic way of saying no to drugs. Some students are doing that. I've seen some of them in shades during the break periods."
"Tomorrow is our big day, we called that Red Ribbon Day. As usual we are at Wesley church where we assemble every Wednesday for worship and afterwards we have the judging of the mascot competition during the parade and when we get back to school after the parade there is the homeroom mix talent competition which is like a variety show - kids get a chance to depict the theme and I should say our theme this year is "The Best Me Is Drug-Free!" and so the opportunities to portray the theme in song, dance, drama and a fun time but also its learning in the midst of the fun."
Red Ribbon Week is being celebrated under the theme "The Best Me Is Drug Free".
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