Former diver wants to see youth drug use plunge: "'For the amount of money we're spending to lock up kids, we could be sending two (of them) to the most expensive colleges in the United States,' he said, adding that of the over two million Americans in prison today, about 90 percent of them are there because of drug-related crimes.
Drug-related accidents are the number one killer of high school students, said Arrington, whose life with a drug mafia was turned into the double gold award-winning film, 'Out of the Night.'
'It's tough to be a kid and have all these drugs and negative choices being hurled at them,' he said.
Arrington said the number one way drugs are introduced to kids are through their peers, but the second most common way is by their family. Last year 20% of the youths doing drugs claimed they were introduced to them by their parents. 'If you can find that spark (in children) for wanting to learn, you can save the life of that child,' Arrington said, and that change can only be achieved by challenging youths to assume leadership roles.
According to U.S. Department of Justice Statistics, 88.9 percent of high school students in 1999 reported they could easily obtain marijuana, 58.1 percent could easily obtain amphetamines, and 47.6 percent said they could easily obtain cocaine. The numbers fall slightly for the ease of obtaining LSD, crack and barbiturates.
Arrington said he would like to see college students get involved in the crackdown on drugs "