A New Law in Illinois to Address Drug Education in Schools

Your public schools are no longer going to teach "just say no" to drugs, a new law will force school districts to talk about drugs more in schools. Is that a good thing? Here are the details you need to know...

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According to FOX 32 Chicago, the new Louie's Law is getting ready to go into action here in the Land of Lincoln, but what exactly is it? On the site they say...

"For years, the primary approach to teaching kids about drugs was to "just say no." Now, a new Illinois law signed this summer is expanding that method...Louie's Law is a mandate for the Illinois Board of Education to create and recommend a comprehensive drug education curriculum because currently there isn’t one...It will also give high school students the chance to learn how to recognize an overdose. They will also learn how to use fentanyl test strips, administer naloxone and other harm reduction steps."

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So just to be clear, high schools will now teach kids how to use fentanyl test strips to see if their drugs are laced with fentanyl?

Is this a good idea?

On the surface, I totally get what this law is attempting to do, the goal is to make sure kids know how to be safe around drugs and learn how to save lives in dire situations, you can argue it is the same way we teach kids to do the Heimlich, and how to use an AED. But shouldn't the message to kids still focus 1000% on "DON'T DO DRUGS" and showing them the side effects of drug use? And maybe at the core of the law that is the goal, and if it is then that is a good thing, because we owe it to kids to make sure they know the consequences of the decisions they make, and doing drugs has significant consequences.