HEARD OF ICE, JIB, GREEN, ROCK AND BLOW?

When drugs, youths and police officers come together, it's usually for
all the wrong reasons.

Peer pressure, a troubled home life and teenage angst are a few
reasons young people might turn to drugs and end up in the back of a
police cruiser - but it doesn't have to be that way.

RCMP Const. Jodi Shelkie, program co-ordinator for D.A.R.E. in
Kamloops, said educating children at a young age and teaching them to
say no are ways of avoiding run-ins with the law down the road.

"We try to give them lots of different options for different
situations," she said.

"If it's friendly peer pressure, how do you say no? If it's bullying
peer pressure, how are you going to say no?"

D.A.R.E., which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, was
created in California in 1983.

It expanded to Canada in 1996 and is now operating in 32 countries
around the world.

As an educational program, the goal of D.A.R.E. is to educate young
people about the dangers of drugs and equip them with the skills to
avoid becoming involved with drugs while they are still young enough
to have not yet been exposed to drugs.

"It's a 10-week program taught to Grade 5 students, one hour each
week," Shelkie said.

"Over the course of the program, you gain a lot of skills."

One of the components of the 'program allows students to anonymously
ask Shelkie questions by way of a box and a stack of paper.

She's been surprised with a lot of what she's heard.

"When I reflect back to what I knew about drugs when I was in Grade 5,
it's incredible what they know," she said.

"They're very honest in their questions because they're anonymous."

Shelkie said that in the first D.A.R.E. class she ever taught, in
1997, the focus was alcohol and tobacco.

That's not the case in 2008.

"Now I get asked about ice and jib and cocaine," she said.

"I'm an older generation and I'm surprised how much they know in Grade
5."

Shelkie said the D.A.R.E. program used to be taught to students in
Grade 6, but surveys showed the age at which youth are first exposed
to drugs decreased six years ago.

Therefore, the program dropped a grade level.

"D.A.R.E. used to be taught to Grade 6 and the age used to be 13," she said.

"Recent surveys have shown that the age has gone down to 12."

Shelkie said the response by schools to D.A.R.E. has been encouraging,
with the program at full capacity.

"This year, I had room for 18 schools and I got 18 schools," she said.

The program is taught to 600 students in Grade 5 classes.