Crystal Darkness.

Did you happen to catch this 30-minute TV program last week?

It probably didn’t break any new ground in terms of high-impact television or reaching out to drug addicts, but you have to give credit to various media outlets for getting behind the effort and broadcasting it around the state at the same time.

I thought the most powerful statements came from the former meth users who are now clean – even the guy in jail – talking about how it’s not worth it.

At minimum, it’s my hope that the program and others like it can help initiate a dialogue among communities – not just police authorities, for example, or among counselors and other folks who work in the addiction field, trying to help individuals overcome their problems.

There is not one magic solution to overcome the scourge of drugs – they have been around in some form for thousands of years. But I would think a more determined society could put a significant dent in the problem by improving communication, involvement, prevention and intervention.

If more people become emboldened and speak out, if more parents talk about the devastating effects of alcohol and drugs, things can start happening – more money for programs, more attention from lawmakers and other politicians, more hope for those wrestling the demons.

To its credit, the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation held a community gathering last Tuesday evening to watch Crystal Darkness and hear from a few folks involved with meth one way or another, including a former user with two young children (please see our coverage of this event on Page 1B).

Now that takes courage – to get in front of a crowd and discuss a former life, a potentially lethal habit.

The motivation, of course, is to stop even one person from going down that rocky path.

I applaud Fort McDowell for stepping out and doing something, anything, to be proactive and engage their community in dialogue.

All too often our mentality is thus – It could never happen to me. My kid would never do that. It’s somebody else’s problem. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that. If I ignore it, it will go away.

Unfortunately, it’s often that type of thinking that gets us into trouble and makes it worse.

Although meth is obviously one of the more nasty drugs out there in terms of its devastation, addiction and pervasiveness, we must be sure to include in the dialogue everything else out there – the booze, the marijuana, the cocaine, the heroine, etc.

Often times the so-called “lesser” drugs like alcohol and pot become gateways or portals to the nastier stuff.

Don’t fool yourself – there have been plenty of families in Fountain Hills impacted by alcohol and drugs. And the problems continue.

We as a community have had various attempts and programs through the decades, but like most things of this nature, they tend to fade away after time. The active people who start something move on, and there is difficulty replacing them.

More often than not, bewildered parents are left fending for themselves, groping in the dark for solutions that seem difficult, confusing, conflicting, overwhelming.

Any kind of darkness can be frightening, not just Crystal Darkness.

Light is possible at the end of the dark tunnel, but sometimes it takes everything you have to crawl through the muck to reach that light.