DRUG DANGERS STARTING AT YOUNG AGE SAYS RCMP EXPERT

Last week was National Addiction Awareness Week, and Grande Prairie's
Community Action on Crime Prevention group and the Grande Prairie and
Area Drug Action Committee set about making sure it wasn't a wasted
opportunity to focus some much-needed attention on the topic of
substance abuse.

Staff Sergeant Ian Sanderson - formerly stationed here and now based
out of Edmonton as an operative of K Division - was brought in to do
just that, offering a series of three public presentations at the
Golden Age Centre, as well as additional talks at local schools.

His series kicked off last Monday evening, with "Parents, Kids and
Drugs," where his focus was informing parents of the potential dangers
their children are facing at increasingly - frighteningly - younger
ages.

"Most kids would start to look at drug use or cigarettes and alcohol
around that Grade 5 or Grade 6 age - pretty young. It is dependent on
their own circumstances - what they've been exposed to or what becomes
'normal' behaviour for them. Either accidentally or by choice, they
tend to gravitate toward what they see," said Sanderson.

"At that age - where their brains are developing and their bodies are
developing - the impact is much more significant and, unfortunately,
can be permanent."

This is the part we already know - that drugs are an issue in any
community is no secret and Sanderson doesn't treat it as one. He
spends very little time in front of his audiences with the "hey, guess
what?" Instead, he opts not to candy-coat and just to put it all out
in front of them.

Your kids might be using drugs - here are the drugs they might have
access to.

Your kids might be using drugs - here are the signs that might clue
you in.

Your kids might be using drugs - here is what might happen to them if
you ignore it.

"A lot of parents may have known a little bit about drugs when they
were in high school, but things change and (these days) the media is
just inundated with this stuff and it becomes really quite frightening
for parents, because they don't have, or they don't feel they have,
the information," said Sanderson.

"A lot of them are really hesitant to even bring the topic up with
their kids at all."

When Community Action on Crime Prevention first formed, it decided on
what it felt were the three core causes of crime in Grande Prairie
that were most in need of attention if it was to ever succeed in its
mandate of keeping crime in and around the city to a minimum.

The three it came up with were substance abuse, a lack of community
connectedness and a breakdown of the family unit - all of which apply
to the point behind Sanderson's Parents, Kids and Drugs
presentation.

Sanderson doesn't believe Grande Prairie is any worse off than other
communities - regardless of whether they're larger or smaller - in
terms of the ever-rising problem with drug addiction. But that doesn't
mean the problem isn't here, or severe.

"If we look at communities and the demographics for who we know
predominantly have problems with drugs, it's that 18-35 bracket.

"Communities that have younger populations and even younger kids, they
tend to see more drug use," said Sanderson.

On this he will get no argument from Grande Prairie's RCMP detachment,
who are the ones who have to deal with the issue of substance abuse
and its many consequences on a daily basis.

"We probably get three or four calls a day from parents saying: 'My
child has a drug problem. How are you going to fix it for me?' That's
not our role - drugs are more of a community issue than a policing
issue ... nothing's more frustrating than to have a parent begging for
help with their child and there's only so much you can do," said
Constable Scott Hagarty.

"Until you find out why people want to introduce a foreign substance
into their bodies to escape their realities, you're not going to solve
the problem ... the police can't solve that, but I think education
can."

Unfortunately, despite the free education being offered to them last
Monday night, very few of the parents in Grande Prairie came out to
take advantage of it - the crowd gathered at the Golden Age Centre for
the presentation barely managed to break a dozen.

Those that did show up, gave their attention for the full two
hours.

Some even took notes and some even brought their kids along to have
the information personally drilled into their still-developing minds
and hopefully have it be remembered later on.

"I've got a 15-year-old son and I wanted to see the different things
that could be affecting his life - it's information. There's no fear
that he's going down the wrong path, but it could happen."

"So I want to be informed in case he does," said attendee Torrie
Derose.

"It's being prepared. The more information you have the more you're
prepared. I have a 15-year-old son too, and sometimes you're
suspicious, but with clues and ideas it gives you more information as
to what to look for," added fellow attendee Paul Laverdier.

Still, as a member of the local RCMP attending and perhaps seeing
first-hand the interest or lack thereof of local parents in better
educating themselves so they might then in kind better educate their
children, the turn-out last Monday was disappointing to Hagarty.

"It's unfortunate - though I realize Grande Prairie is a busy city and
everything - but it is disappointing that we don't have the numbers
(here tonight), when really, we should be able to fill up the Crystal
Centre," said Hagarty.

"It's kind of frustrating that even this room isn't full tonight,
because sometime this week I know somebody is going to phone me and
say 'I want information on drugs.' I think there's a lot of denial to
the problem - there's a lot of parents out there that think: 'This
will never happen to me.'"