This editorial is a compilation from a discussion held by the editorial board.

Last week a car crash at Oklahoma State University led to the death of four and the injury of dozens more. The driver, Adacia Chambers, was reportedly under the influence of drugs. The Mentor editorial board feels now is a good time to discuss substance abuse at our own school.

It’s not a secret to Manhattan High students that drugs and alcohol have a large presence at Manhattan High. Probably the most prevalent substance at our school is marijuana. The “weed culture” at MHS, the pride and incessant bragging revolving around smoking weed and wearing weed-decorated couture, is, frankly, ridiculous. No matter how “cool” it may be, the bragging just isn’t smart. Why would you openly talk about illegal substance abuse?

One of the arguments often made is that these substances are “actually harmless.” But that simply isn’t true. While the war on drugs itself may be rooted in racism and furthering a power regime, the science showing the harms of drugs is not just government propaganda. Weed is extremely detrimental to the frontal cortex of still-developing individuals and the brain isn’t fully developed until the age of 26 at the earliest. So, yeah, high schoolers and college-goers you actually ARE hurting your thought and reasoning capabilities when you get high.

Also, the reasons behind your drug use (whether it be for “transcendental” purposes, as a coping mechanism for bad life circumstances or just because you’re into that stuff) aren’t logical. As cliche as it may sound, you can achieve all of the things drugs supposedly give you without getting high.

Drugs do not bring you to a higher plane of existence — you can find Nirvana another way (And no, we’re not talking about the band).

If you’re dealing with bad life circumstances, we’re very sincerely sorry. You are fantastic. You don’t deserve to be in a bad situation and we promise you can get through this without drugs. There a ton of people who care about you and will gladly do everything in their ability to help you. Don’t be afraid to approach them.

And if you just like it a lot (Really?), find something else to do, man. Seriously.

But, considering that you probably think this editorial is lame (maybe because of the current state of your frontal cortex?), we’re going to assume you won’t actually take this advice so, please, at least pay attention to the next bit.

If you are going to do these things, do it in a safe environment. If you “need” to smoke weed or drink or do anything else, make sure you have someone staying sober to make sure you stay safe. Don’t drink and drive or anything else like that. Because these substances can, as depicted by the incident at OSU, lead to the death of yourself or other people and that’s not cool. At all.

Now, for the administration and faculty of MHS, we encourage you to have a firmer stance on drugs. Yes, we know you “say no to drugs,” but there’s not a lot of bite to go along with the bark. Punish people. Just do it. They might not like it, and you might think they’re just being dumb, experimenting teens, but in the end if you nip the bud early (no pun intended, we swear) you could very well save lives.

So that’s it for now folks. Just to reiterate what you’ve heard in legitimately every health class for the past at least nine years:

Don’t do drugs. Don’t drink.

And above all, be safe because we don’t want you or anyone else to die.