WHISTLER PUPILS' DRUG USAGE SIGNIFICANT, SURVEY CLAIMS

WHISTLER -- Fifty-nine per cent of Grade 11 youths in Whist-ler who
responded to a survey said they had come to school drunk or stoned at least
once in the previous year.

The survey, which polled 355 of Whistler's 432 students in Grades 6 to 12,
found that, overall, 24.8 per cent had done the same thing.

It also found that half of the Grade 11s reported drinking in the 30 days
before the survey and almost a quarter smoked dope in the same period.

Whistler Community Services youth outreach worker Greg McDonnell said the
results are not surprising and mirror what is happening in B.C.

"I think it reflects a lot of the norms that are happening with the young
adult population," he said.

But Simon Fraser criminology Prof. Raymond Corrado said: "Whistler, on
average, is one of the highest-income communities, with highly educated
families, in Canada. And typically with education, with higher incomes,
comes the more liberal attitude toward children's education and growth.

"Symbolically, Whistler represents to the world skiing, boarding, hiking,
fun and partying. It is the heart and soul of the Whistler experience and
that culture is going to affect the youths."

The Communities that Care Youth Survey was sponsored by Whistler for Youth,
a group that includes church leaders, members of Whistler Community
Services, health officials, staff from the municipality, police, businesses
and schools.

Survey project manager Christine Buttkus said many of the youths surveyed
perceived that their parents wouldn't be that upset if they used drugs or
alcohol.

"If youths perceive it is OK, then that will affect their behaviour," she
said. "They [adults] are modelling for the youths."

Said Deanne Zeidler, who is on a committee studying the results and
formulating a response: "As a parent of kids in the high school, these
figures are frightening."

The survey found that in Grade 6, 10.2 per cent of students had used
alcohol in the previous month. In Grade 9, that number jumped to 43.2. In
Grade 11, it went to 84.2 and then fell to 82.1 per cent in Grade 12.

Marijuana use in the previous month jumped to 15.9 per cent in Grade 9 from
3.4 in Grade 8. Use peaked in Grade 11 at 51.3.

Dallas Cristofoli, interim superintendent of Howe Sound School District,
which includes Whistler, said the use of alcohol "would be absolutely no
surprise to me."

"I know there are students who will be at school after using drugs or
alcohol and as vigilant as you are, that is going to happen.

"But the 59 per cent [coming to school drunk or stoned] in Grade 11, that
just doesn't make sense. I just think there are more kids than that making
better decisions.

"The marijuana use is much harder to detect. It is not as obvious, but
again, that would not surprise. We were dealing with these same issues 20
years ago."

The chairwomen of B.C.'s two largest school districts, Vancouver and
Surrey, said the results were not unexpected.

"This doesn't surprise me," said Surrey's Mary Polak. "It certainly
concerns me. But we're seeing the same kind of thing repeated here. And
there's got to be some action taken."

Vancouver chairwoman Adrienne Montani said the results were "not a surprise."

"It's what statistics and surveys around the province have been showing for
years," she said.

"We have data that there is a certain percentage of kids, and it's a fairly
high percentage of kids, that experiment, at least, with these substances.
We've known that the age of experimentation has been dropping for years."

'It Is Just Part Of Going Out'

Here's what four Whistler students age 15 to 17 say about drug and alcohol use:

- - Cole Read: "It is just part of going out. I wouldn't say it's done a lot.
It's not serious. When somebody turns 19 and they have never drunk before,
then they start drinking and then they might become an alcoholic. It may
not be ethically right to drink when you're younger, but maybe you should
drink some."

- - Jessica Dow: "Everyone knows the dangers of it. I speak to my mom about
it and as a result of that I don't do it. When your parents relate to you
on a real level and they are not treating you like a moron, that's when it
works. [Youths do it] to escape . . . I don't think it is so much that they
do it because they have to fit in, it is just the way you fit in, it is not
even a conscious decision."

- - Rachel Kleinman: "Whistler is a high-priced community and many have money
from their families and lots of them don't know what to do with it so maybe
that is what they do. . . . Some [youths] who drink so much right now they
are going to keep doing it for the rest of their lives."

- - Patrick Gervais: "Maybe they want to be cool or maybe they are pressured,
I don't know . . . My parents educate me about it and they tell me that it
is not a smart thing to do, and I listen to them."