SuperAmericans.com

THE CANDLELIGHT VIGIL
For
  Lost Promise

   June 8, 2006

The Vigil was opened by MC Jim Vance, Anchorman, News 4,
   Washington, D.C. It was an emotional and successful gathering
focusing public and media attention on lives lost due to drugs.
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The ceremony was attended by hundreds of grieving parents
     and families, and officials involved in curbing drug use. School
choirs were on hand. The "message" was evident. There was
a Wall of Pictures of the deceased .There were faces of sons,
       daughters, and other family  members who died from being
          addicted --- who lost their live due to substance abuse.

      There were a number of distinguished speakers at the Vigil, one of
       of whom was Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the federal government's
     National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). She spoke about the rise
and decline of cocaine use, and the abrupt change in the public's
   perception that it was safe, and  not safe to use.

Many speakers told the story of their missing children and family
members. Dr. Lonise Bias, mother of Len Bias, the basketball star
at the University of Maryland, spoke of her son's loss twenty-years
  earlier to an overdose of cocaine. Len Bias was 22, at the time.

Dr. Bias has dedicated her life to providing leadership to
    concerned persons, government agencies, and civic groups in
   preventing substance abuse among young people. She reaches
   out, nationally, to the young and old with anti-drrug messages
through public speaking, writing, and personal appearances
on television..

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The abrupt decline in the rate of cocaine use among 12th graders,
dropped from nearly 13 percent to 5 percent in the late '80s and
early '90s This may be attributed to intense media coverage of Len
Bias' death due to cocaine use.The nation got the "message."
The societal impact of substance abuse in America may be
accessed at the LINKS page by visiting a series of
of websites.