Too Good For Drugs

Dear Neighbors,

As you all know, the growing heroin epidemic is of great concern. I am happy to announce that I met with County Executive Ed Mangano to announce our joint participation with the Nassau County Police Department to implement Nassau’s new “Too Good For Drugs” Program. “Too Good For Drugs” is a school-based drug prevention program for kindergarten through 12th grade which is currently in place in over 2,500 school districts throughout all 50 states and was created in 1978 by the Mendez Foundation. This drug education program is designed to reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors related to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, including heroin which is becoming a dangerous problem for Long Island teens.

We need to reach the students before they make the wrong choices. Proper education and programs like “Too Good For Drugs” are excellent ways to make sure our children don’t go down the wrong path.

This initiative is the third prong of the County’s plan to combat the current heroin epidemic that is spreading across our neighborhoods. The other two prongs of the drug education program include: 1) The Enforcement Initiative called Operation H.A.L.T. (Heroin Abuse Location Targeting), which targets heroin users traveling in and out of the county to purchase heroin; and 2) The Awareness Initiative which includes the creation and dissemination of advertisements aimed at educating parents about the current heroin epidemic.
To learn more about the “Too Good For Drugs” program please visit http://www.mendezfoundation.org/too_good.php.
Pictured: Deputy Presiding Officer Ciotti and County Executive Mangano displaying ads for the program.
As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact my office at (516) 571-6203.

Sincerely,
Legislator John Ciotti
Deputy Presiding Officer