STUDENTS WILL GET ANTI-DRUG PACKAGE

The Regina and Area Drug Strategy will be introducing its drug and
alcohol prevention resource materials in the province's high schools
this fall.

"We are doing this because we are trying to raise good solid citizens.
These kids are our future," said Bob Kowalchuk, the agency's drug
strategy co-ordinator.

In 2005 the agency secured three years of funding from Health Canada
to develop resource materials for Grades 1 to 12 and to create a
speakers bureau.

"Last year we developed supplementary curriculum materials for Grades
6, 7 and 8 that are available to every student in Saskatchewan. The
curriculum is available online through the Saskatchewan Teachers
Federation, Saskatchewan Learning and through the drug strategy Web
site," Kowalchuk said.

The second phase was the development of supplementary drug and alcohol
prevention curriculum for Grade 9 and 10, and next year the agency
with the help of its partners -- the Regina Catholic, Regina Public
and Prairie Valley school divisions, the City of Regina, the Regina
Police Service, the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region, Saskatchewan
Learning and Saskatchewan Health -- will develop resource materials
for elementary students in Grades 1 to 5.

"The intent behind all of these materials is really to help give the
kids adequate information to help create their awareness around the
impact of the use of drugs. That's the bottom line," Kowalchuk said.

The Regina Crime Prevention Commission initiated a municipal drug
strategy in 2002. The Regina and Area Drug Strategy was developed with
22 partners using a community mobilization and community development
approach to addressing drug addiction issues in Regina.

"The earlier you focus on prevention the better your chances are of
having kids learning to make better decisions about the potential use
of alcohol and drugs," Kowalchuk said, adding research shows that 11-
and 12-year-olds are starting to experiment with alcohol.

Talking to former drug users, who are part of the speakers bureau,
reveals that they started using because they no longer felt connected
to their family, an activity or the rest of the kids in the school,
Kowalchuk said.

"It is the disconnected kids who feel they need something else to
do," he said.

"When these kids see the use of drugs and alcohol as a way of
socializing and having fun or altering their reality then we have a
problem."