Just hearing the words in the title of this program really rings true to the testimonies given that over 280 students and parents witnessed in April of 2019 at the Marion County Truth & Consequences program. The Truth & Consequences program was a success this year as far as increasing the number of individuals participating. 254 students went through scenarios with volunteer “parents” that presented them with a realistic scenario and then listed steps to take and booths to visit to speak with the members of our community. The community members present represented a variety of resources available in our community such as: Mortician, County Judge, Police department, Sheriff’s office, Pharmacist, Drug abuse counselor, domestic violence outreach, health department, hospital, Pastor, etc. Students as well as volunteer adults were able to ask questions at each station and were able to find out first-hand how situations take place. Marion County, like many surrounding counties are faced with the issue of drugs and alcohol consumption on the rise. More and more children are exposed are earlier ages that we would have ever imagined. When doing a survey among the students it was quite alarming that over 50% of youth identified slight or no risk of marijuana usage. 30%indicated a slight or no risk of usage when taking prescription medicine without a doctor’s prescription or taking over the counter medications to get high. Year after year these numbers continue to rise despite our efforts. The students were also able to sit in on a discussion about relationship smarts. With the rise in all social media platforms, our youth are suffering more from anxiety, depression and the numbers of suicide are on the rise as well. We need to continue to reach out to these youth and make them aware of the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol. By continuing this program year to year we may not see a significant change but if we reach just one student, then we would have done our job. We, as a community need to come together to combat the underage drinking and drug use.