DRUG USE UP IN RURAL YOUTH, SAY AUTHORITIES

Drug use by young people in rural areas continues to escalate as narcotics
like heroin and crack cocaine become more accessible, says Staff Sgt. Dan
Anderson of Waterloo Regional Police.

If young people want to find drugs, they need only look, he said.

"There are more opportunities in the urban areas because of availability
and it's less prevalent here than in downtown Toronto," he said. "But if
you're prone to get into that culture, you will."

Marijuana is the most prevalent drug in rural areas, he said. However, use
of crack cocaine and heroin is steadily increasing.

In what Staff Sgt. Anderson called a "mushroom effect," the distribution of
drugs to young people in rural areas usually starts with one or two people
who introduce it to their peers.

"I don't know of one incident where someone held somebody down and forced
them to take crack cocaine, heroin or marijuana," he said.

The recent arrest of three Kitchener residents suspected of supplying drugs
to rural areas like Tavistock, Shakespeare, New Hamburg and Wellesley might
slow down the distribution of drugs to those areas, but it won't stop it,
Staff Sgt. Anderson said.

"I have no doubt those arrests have interrupted it, but in no way am I
naive enough to believe we have eradicated it," he said. "Once you cut off
one arm of the octopus there's always another there waiting."

"When we started in schools five years ago, we were seeing kids about
alcohol and cannabis," said Karen Zwakenberg, a youth addiction counsellor
with the Perth Addiction Centre. "Now seeing kids who have only tried
alcohol and cannabis is a rarity." The Stratford centre deals with a
mixture of rural and urban youth, both at its Downie Street office and in
schools. And even though information on the detrimental effects of drug use
is being heard by students, the number of young people using drugs is
increasing, she said.

"Our experience is that it (drug use) has increased massively," Ms.
Zwakenberg said.

Experimenting with drugs often occurs in Grades 6 and 7, and sometimes even
as early as Grade 4, she said. And the younger they are when they start,
the easier it is for them to get hooked.

"Lets face it, it's not a bad feeling and they want to do it again," Ms.
Zwakenberg said.

Drug use can have a "life-long impact" for young people by affecting their
schooling and possibly causing them to drop out, she said. "Teens are at a
time in their life when they have to put a lot of energy into the act of
daily living or they won't do well." In some instances, drugs can even be
fatal, she adds.

Parents are the key to detecting a child's drug use and getting them to
seek help for it.

"Parents need to let kids know they don't approve," she said. "People
either think they know about drugs from when they were young, or they don't
want to know. They don't want to confront the idea of it happening to their
kids."

Symptoms indicating drug use in young people include a drop in marks and
poor attendance at school, becoming involved in illegal activity, like
theft, to pay for drugs and behavioral problems at home, said Ms. Zwakenberg.

Parents who suspect their children are using drugs or young people seeking
information on drug abuse can contact the Perth Addiction Centre at 271-6730.

All calls are confidential, and a counsellor can arrange for an appointment
at the office or at the student's school.