When teenagers panic in the face of a drug overdose and dump a friend in a vacant field to die, the community is rightly outraged. People naturally search for solutions so that other young people don't meet a similar fate.

But answers are hard to find. Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Salt Lake City, thinks one of them may be to pass a law that makes it a crime not to help someone in trouble. That may help in the days after such a crime when parents and others agonize over how to hold guilty parties accountable, but it isn't likely to make a teenager who is high on drugs act more responsibly. Teenagers seldom are experts on the law. Chances are they already are panicking because they fear the consequences of their actions.

A better solution is to try to educate people before such a crisis develops. Today, a group known as the Harm Reduction Project is sponsoring two free public forums at the University of Utah. One, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Saltair room of the A. Ray Olpin Union Building, is strictly for people under 21 — no exceptions.

The other, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Dumke Auditorium of the Museum of Fine Arts Building, is for people 21 and older — no exceptions.

Both discussions will be led by experts in the field, including law enforcement and religious leaders. Both promise frank discussions steeped in reality.

Prevention efforts have to walk a fine line. If experts talk too much about how overdoses are survivable and how drug users should learn to dial 911 when problems occur, many people will view that as a tacit endorsement of drug use. Why focus on what to do when someone has ingested too much of an illegal substance when the focus instead should be on not taking an illegal substance in the first place?

But to focus solely on the need to avoid drugs completely ignores the fact that a certain percentage of young people will, despite the best efforts of parents and others, experiment with harmful drugs. During 2005, 18-year-old Zachary Tyler Martinez died after his friends dumped him at a county hang-gliding park at Point of the Mountain rather than get him the help that could have saved his life. A few months later, a separate group of teens dumped 18-year-old Amelia Sorich in the foothills above Bountiful. She, too, died. Then in November, friends waited for hours before notifying police about 27-year-old Stephen James Sill, who had overdosed and was unresponsive.

True, the word "overdose" is misleading in these cases. There is no such thing as a proper dose of an illegal controlled substance. Any amount is too much.

But then, any person who dies needlessly because the people around him didn't do the right thing is a tragedy of unspeakable proportions.

Certainly, people who treat their friends so callously should be held accountable, as the proposed bill would do. But it's also proper for the community to come together and discuss the issue, as will happen at today's forums. We urge people to attend.