The best ideas often come from the group, not the individual, and the Adams County Sheriff’s Office recognizes that simple fact.

Two years ago the ACSO decided to use the community to fight crime by starting several Neighborhood Watch programs. Deputies meet with the groups regularly, and the sheriff has said tips from Neighborhood Watch members have solved crimes.

But when deputies talked with watch groups about drug use they got a new idea.

Drug prevention and crime prevention starts with young children and the ACSO needed to start at the beginning.

A few meetings later the Natchez-Adams School District was happily on board. In the fall, district fifth-graders will begin the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.

D.A.R.E. has been around for years, and it has succeeded for years. Concordia Parish’s program boasts of changed lives each year, and national statistics prove that education is the best drug-fighting tool.

Law enforcement and the public schools have joined forces to make a positive impact in the lives of area children.

Their reward won’t be money, attention or political glory. It will be in the pledges of fifth-graders to stay drug free.