Llano student looks at drug issue with award-winning project

DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR

LLANO — There are always two sides to everything — sometimes even more — but often we get so wrapped up in “our” side that we stop trying to hear the others.

Last fall, Llano High School senior Anthony Levensailor began exploring, and really listening to, the many sides of the drug issue.

His goal wasn’t to solve the problems caused by drugs but to take the time to really hear what those wrapped up in the issue — users, family members and opponents — were saying, what their stories were.

“So often we just keep shouting what our side is that we don’t listen to any other side,” Levensailor said. “But if we really want to understand something like drug use, don’t we have to hear all the sides?”

Now, Levensailor’s research is giving him a national stage in July after earning the top spot for advocacy in the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America’s state competition in Corpus Christi earlier in April.

He admitted that tackling the drug issue in a way that gives voice to all sides, including users, was a difficult one but something about which he felt passionate. Growing up in his neighborhood, Levensailor found himself living among several people who used drugs. He also noticed they weren’t the evil folks or “bad” apples often described by other adults.

“I wanted to know their stories,” Levensailor said.

As he began laying out his research, Levensailor focused on three perspectives of drug use: the users themselves, their family members and law enforcement/anti-drug advocates. Levensailor soon found himself facing down a prejudice of his own.

Growing up, Levensailor learned to question those in authority, especially people leading the war on drugs. The easiest people for him to approach were the users.

“But talking to family members, that was tougher,” he admitted. “How do you approach them?”

Fortunately, Levensailor had studied personal interaction in a previous class, so he was able to connect with family members of drug users.

But that still left the most challenging group for him, personally: the anti-drug folks or those leading the war on drugs.

“They were the toughest for me,” he said. Still, Levensailor needed to hear, really hear, their stories and perspective as well. When he entered the project, Levensailor had this “idea” of what the anti-drug people would be like — maybe a bit closed-minded or do-gooders who did some research on the Internet and really didn’t know what it was like for users.

He was surprised at what he found.

“They are people who want to make a difference in the community,” he said. “Each of them had their own stories. Some had a family member who had (drug) problems or had (problems) themselves. They weren’t what I thought they’d be.”

The entire research process served as an education for Levensailor. Even though he had lived around drug users growing up, Levensailor discovered you couldn’t just lump them into one category. Each had his or her own story and reason for using drugs, though some common themes ran through the group.

The main reasons people gave him for using drugs included: Everybody is doing it; it helped them accept themselves or  “feel” happy; or “I don’t know why.” The last group, Levensailor said, had basically forgotten why they started using or what they were getting from it.

“For some, it was just like a hobby,” he said. “You know if you think about a family that, say, makes more than $60,000 a year. They can take a trip or go to Disney Land. But if you have a family that makes less than $40,000 a year, they can’t. So they look for something else to do. Maybe drugs is one of those things.”

Levensailor’s intention isn’t to make excuses for drug users or condone it. He admitted he can’t really do something about an activity people do behind closed doors but hoped they would first consider the impact it makes on their immediate family, especially if it puts the family in financial jeopardy. He has seen the effects of drug use in his community and knows how it changes and hurts people.

In the end, his project for the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America’s advocacy competition wasn’t about solving the drug issue as much as trying to get everybody to hear all the sides.

“I wanted to share the different stories,” he said. “Before we can solve a problem, we have to understand it, and understand it from all perspectives. That’s where these people’s stories come in.”

The message seemed to resonate with the judges during the Texas FCCLA State Leadership Convention on April 10-12 in Corpus Christi. During the Students Taking Action with Recognition (STAR)/Proficiency Events advocacy competition, Levensailor presented his research with a 10-minute speech and a 32-page book. His efforts landed him a state championship and a trip to the National Leadership Conference on July 6-11 in San Antonio.

daniel@thepicayune.com