PROGRAMS WARN KIDS OF DANGER USING DRUGS

Some kids are wiser to drugs these days, but police in the schools
said younger grades are still blessedly ignorant. They are
vulnerable, however, without parental involvement and strong
education which is why an old program and two brand new ones are
being presented to students by the local RCMP.

"I find at the Grade 5 level I find they are mostly still pretty
naive; they don't often know what a joint is, what pot means," said
Prince George RCMP Const. Debbie Medcke who leads the city's DARE
Program, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education. "At Grade 6 or 7, oh
yeah, they are pretty smart about that. By Grade 7 for sure, and they
also have the attitude, too."

The attitude is the gravest concern. It is the bravado of youth. It
may not be a negative or rebellious outlook on life, just a sense of
their own independence but without the context of social danger.
Organized crime has a team of foot soldiers in the city, street
dealers, and they prey on schoolyards where they can find that
attitude in someone looking for a little adventure or escape.

"A lot of people have heard drug names like jib and ice for crystal
meth, but how about strawberry quick or cherry blast? Who do you
think these names appeal to?," said Prince George RCMP Const. Lesley
Dix, in charge of the city's community policing initiatives,
including a new one aimed at older kids on the effects of drugs, and
another for older grades on the gang industry.

It doesn't take long, once those vulnerable kids are found, to turn
them into regular customers, then to indebted customers, then into
virtual slaves who are forced to do everything from sexual favours
for adults, violence on others, robberies, recruiting more kids into
addiction, and other dirty deeds. The weaker the supports at home,
the easier it is to lure them into gang servitude.

Dix said the gang-associated life comes with some exciting and
comforting promises. She is introducing a new education module for
high schools that talks frankly about the growing gang culture in the
area.

"North District calls our new program The Three Biggest Lies but I
also call it The Truth Behind The Promises," said Dix. "The three
biggest lies are that you will have a sense of belonging to a family
where you will be safe if you are in the gang; they offer you a sense
of protection; and the third lie is they promise you respect."

The truth is, said Dix, being in a gang or even just friends with
people in a gang raises your risk of getting seriously hurt or
killed. Unlike a family, which will sacrifice as a group for the
benefit of the one, gangs demand that each member sacrifice for the
benefit of the whole, so there is no real belonging to anything
except a parasite stronger than you are. The third lie is about
respect: fear is really what gangs foster and no one will regard you
well if fear is the root feeling, no one will ever trust you.

"Money is the biggest reason gangs recruit from elementary schools
and especially high schools," she said. "They are looking for
possible customers for their product. We want to warn students about
that before the gangs get them. All they want you to do for them is
buy drugs, or be a drug mule. If you become their mule, you are
responsible for making a certain amount of money. If you don't make
that much, watch out. If you make more than that amount, you will be
expected to make that much every time, so if you can't get that much,
you owe them. If you were supposed to bring back $500 and you only
brought back $400, you owe them $100."

It not only can happen in Prince George, this is exactly what is
happening to dozens of teens working today peddling dope in the local
community, trying to stay ahead of the demands of the gang leaders.
When they fall behind in their money, they have to resort to
stealing, breaking into homes, selling their bodies for sex, hurting
people, extorting from even their own families, and other tactics of
desperation.

"They are old enough at that age to make their own choices, but
vulnerable enough to make bad choices with consequences they are
forced to live with," said Dix.

Medcke said she is absolutely certain the DARE information is having
a positive result, if not for the entire student population, at least
for some individual kids who might have gotten lost in drugs but
thanks to their education, managed to make safer choices.

"Grade 5, that's a really great age," she said. "You still have the
chance to give them information and you can still steer them in the
right direction; their minds are not made up about what paths they
are going to take, so we work on showing them the right road. It can
be a slippery slope after that, especially with the kids who don't
have the home support to make choices that keep them away from drugs
and the eventual fate of ending up in jail in a few years, or worse.
But I truly believe it doesn't matter who or what the parent is - a
parent who is into trouble or into drugs themselves - they still want
the best for their children. They don't want their kids to go down
the paths they did. Those are the parents who know what's waiting for
them, and they know that it is a hard thing to get out of once you
are in. They are the ones who especially need help for their kids."

Medcke, with the help of Constables Trask and Van Hussen, got to 22
elementary schools this school year (more than 700 kids total), which
is almost all of them. Her goal is 100 per cent of city elementary
schools next year.

Dix said the new gang program for high schools has not yet started in
this area, but is about ready to go either late this school year or
early in fall.

Both Mounties said it is never too late or too early to talk to your
own kids at home about how choices in front of them can lead to
positive results in life or towards the desperation and pain of gang
life. There is no difference anymore, in Prince George, between doing
drugs and being gang involved. Virtually all drugs are controlled by
some faction of organized crime.