lost his 15-year-old son to cheese

Fernando Cortez is getting involved. He lost his 15-year-old son to cheese earlier this year. Cortez swears his son wasn’t a user and is haunted by what-ifs. What if he had done this versus that? Would his son still be alive? In the end, Cortez has had to put away those thoughts and channel his grief into something that could save lives. He goes to Dallas schools, speaking out about his painful experience and giving out his cell phone number to anyone who needs to talk. He urges parents to do the same — talk to their kids.

Drug experts add this advice: don’t bury your head in the sand. If your child’s grades drop, he loses interest in the activities he once loved, if he changes friends, if he starts to have trouble at school … all of these are warning signs that need to be acted upon immediately. With drug dealers stepping up their efforts to target your kids, police and drug counselors say we should all make as much of an effort to keep them safe.