EDUCATION KEY IN DRUG BATTLE

It shouldn't be surprising that four young teens ended up in the
emergency room last week after taking street drugs in a Saanich park.
Frightening, certainly. But hardly shocking.

The four -- all 13 or 14 -- were among a larger group who took what
they thought was ecstasy. Police suspect it was some other drug. All
are fine now.

That's good news. It's also good news that overall, young people are
engaging in less risky behaviour today than they were two decades ago.
That's a tribute to their good judgment and the efforts of parents and
school.

The bad news is that use remain high. About 14 per cent of youths 13
and 14 in B.C. have used illegal drugs -- about 7,000 boys and girls
who took a pill someone handed them or smoked pot. About 17,000 kids
that age have experimented with alcohol.

There are lessons to be learned from last week's incident.

First, we have to keep our preconceptions in check. There was an
initial assumption that some drug pusher was to blame. The person
arrested was a homeless 17-year-old, barely older than the kids who
got sick. He's hardly a criminal mastermind.

We also have to accept the school officials' observation that these
were "good kids." They weren't roaming downtown Vancouver at midnight.
They were in a suburban park, after school.

And we need to look hard at the lessons we share on drugs. Everyone
wishes kids simply wouldn't do drugs. That's the safe, sensible and
desirable outcome of the various "Just Say No" campaigns.

But some will. So they need to learn that while all drug use is risky,
there are degrees of risk. Taking pills from a stranger is more risky
than drinking a beer at a party. Taking a handful of pills, as some of
the group did, is riskier than taking one and waiting to see what happens.

For the kids who will use drugs, conversations about reducing the
dangers are more important than repeated warnings that drugs are bad.

Despite the headlines, we've made progress. Making more gains will
depend on parents, schools and all of us working harder, and smarter,
to educate our children.