LET'S TALK DRUGS

Teen drug and alcohol use is a fact of life in every community. Most
of it is experimental; rarely does it lead to addiction.

It's not a crisis but it shouldn't be ignored either, judging by the
latest McCreary teen health survey. In 2003, kids aged 13 to 18
filled out a survey and one in five said they had tried marijuana and
more than half said they had used alcohol. These are not surprising
statistics but they should make parents take notice.

Parents, their own lack of confidence notwithstanding, are the best
preventers. They are their child's first teachers and are the role
models most copied by young people. Yet many probably don't know how
to talk to their kids about the issue and most don't realize that
simply conversing at sensitive times in their kids' lives, and
possibly role-playing responses to hypothetical scenarios, will do
more than any scary lecture in PE class. Parents don't have to be the
experts either, they only need to raise the topic and know where to
go for extra resources.

Schools are often a great help in providing materials and talking
points for parents, many of whom can use their own experiences in
explaining the downsides of experimenting at a young age. Drugs are
now more potent, more accessible and contain more impurities than
ever before. Alcohol poisoning and driving while drunk are very real,
yet extremely dangerous, possibilities. New studies claim even
marijuana has connections to psychosis and, at the very least, can
impair teens at a point when their brains are at a critical
development stage.

Schools can't do it alone. Parents need to connect with their kids
and be prepared to be a sounding board, a consistent role model and a
partner in a journey of inquiry.

That said, there is a role for school trustees, as well, in making
sure students are allowed to participate in the McCreary study. As
the third largest district in the province, Tri-City students must be
allowed to provide their views and information on their behaviour for
this study on youth health habits to be credible. Everybody needs
information to make sound decisions and youth, parents, educators,
health officials and prevention workers are no exception.