'YOU JUST NEED TO KNOW WHO TO ASK' FOR DRUGS

They're Easy To Get, Say Students, Officials

BY junior high school, most students know who among their peers uses
drugs and sells drugs.

"Most kids -- if they're looking for it -- have access to drugs
regardless of which school they go to,'' said Laura Goossen,
supervisor of youth services for the Addictions Foundation of
Manitoba. "It's very easy to get drugs at school."

Goossen said there is some level of drug trade at almost all city
schools, operating just below the radar of teachers and
administrators.

Casual conversations with city high school students appear to support
Goossen's claim.

One 16-year-old Grade 11 student from Daniel McIntyre Collegiate said
yesterday if he wanted to buy pot, he could find some in less than two
hours.

"It's like, 'What do you want, and how much?' '' he said. "It's not
hard; you just need to know who to ask."

Schools are one of the ideal markets for drug dealers because of the
concentration of potential buyers and because the large number of
students milling about make it easy for dealers to do business without
being caught.

Winnipeg police Insp. Gary Walker said police are regularly called to
schools by administrators who are anxious to suppress the drug trade
in their school.

But Walker said it's difficult for police to infiltrate the youth drug
trade because undercover officers are older than the average student
and are not part of the student social scene, making them suspect and
untrustworthy.

Keith Thomas, risk manager for the Manitoba Association of School
Trustees, said school administrators are aware there is some drug
dealing taking place on their campuses.

He said principals and teachers are constantly keeping their ear to
the ground to determine who the dealers and users are.

If they receive credible information that a student has drugs at
school, teachers and principals have the right to conduct a search of
that student's locker and call police.

But Thomas said drug dealing on school yards isn't an everyday
occurrence at all schools.

"How much it cuts into regular school programming in most schools --
probably very little,'' he said. "But I can't speak for all schools;
one or two may at any one time be having a particular problem."