Posted on April 11, 2001 at 4:00 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Beginning April 23, some 7th graders from the Birmingham and Jefferson County public schools will get a scary lesson on what can happen to them if they decide to use drugs and alcohol. The students will learn those lessons at the Drug Store program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The week-long event will be held from 9 to 11:15 a.m. and from noon to 2:15 p.m. April 23 through April 27 at the UAB Bartow Arena, 617 13th Street South.

The Drug Store is a no-nonsense program that lets children see the social and physical consequences of substance abuse. The Drug Store is run by the UAB Police Department, along with federal law enforcement agents, federal prosecutors, judges, doctors, nurses, substance abuse counselors and teachers, who will come together to teach the students about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse.

The Drug Store was established at UAB in 1995. Since then, the program has spread to other cities, including Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, Parker City, Okla. and Midland, Texas.

The idea behind the program’s name comes from the fact that in many American communities, buying illegal drugs is as easy as purchasing medicine at a drug store.

The Drug Store works like this:

• Students walk through seven stations. The first station is a make-believe neighborhood drug store in which agents from the FBI, U.S. Customs and ATF will show the students samples of legal and illegal drugs. Suddenly, two UAB police officers will arrest one of the students for removing a drug sample from the table.
  
  
• The student is handcuffed and taken away. At this point only the Drug Store coordinators and the student under arrest know that the arrest is a hoax. The second scene is a police station and a jail. Birmingham City police officers search, fingerprint and photograph the student. The student is then dressed in an orange prison uniform and placed inside a makeshift jail cell.
  
  
• The next station is a federal courtroom. Here, a judge and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office will conduct a mock trial in which the student is found guilty and ordered to serve a lengthy prison term under the federal mandatory drug sentencing laws.
  
  
• The student, now out of prison, meets with a drug treatment counselor in station four. A substance abuse counselor tells the student about the random drug tests he or she must take. A positive test means a report to a parole officer and another jail sentence. Attendance at weekly group meetings is also required, the counselor says.
  
  
• The skit continues as the student leaves the drug treatment and attends a party in the next station. The music is loud and drugs and alcohol are served. Then, without warning, the student collapses from an overdose. Real-life paramedics attempt to revive the student.
  
  
• The siren of an ambulance wails as the critically-ill student is rushed to the hospital emergency room in station six. Medical personnel from University Hospital make a desperate attempt to resuscitate the student, but the student dies.
  
  
• The last scene is a funeral. One by one, each class member walks past the casket, which stands in front of the room. Inside the casket is a mirror, which serves as a harsh reminder to each student that drugs can kill.

“We want the students to realize that they don’t have to be influenced by their peers into using drugs,” says Tonya Webb, a Drug Store coordinator and a crime prevention specialist with the UAB Police Department. “We want the students to understand that they don’t have to use drugs to be accepted.”

For more information about the Drug Store, call Tonya Webb, UAB crime prevention specialist at (205) 934-2409.