DRUG USE STILL A THREAT TO OUR YOUTH

Recently, one of our young people right here in Kahnawake overdosed on some
drugs and ended up in the hospital. His bad trip may last the rest of his life.

As a community, haven't we learned anything yet? What has to happen before
people realize that illegal drugs injure, maim and kill?

As much as we try to educate our youth on the dangers of drug abuse, it
never seems to sink in. There is no reason for anyone to die. The peer
pressure on our young people to experiment and use drugs is enormous. It
puts every young person at risk, no mater how hard many parents are working
to bring up their children the right way.

There is no good reason for anyone to use drugs. Yet it keeps on happening.
As adults in our community, where have we failed? What have we not done to
stop the spiraling use of drugs in our community? As the adults and leaders
of Kahnawake, we are afraid of taking action. Are we too lazy? Or too
stupid or what?

Like drinking alcohol, drug use has become the social thing to do. Let's
face it, the perception is that the adults are role modeling the behaviour
for our youth whether we indulge ourselves or condone the behaviour.

Are our adults so taken in by drugs that they are no longer morally strong
enough to stand up and fight against it?

This is a scary thought. But it may be partially true. How many adults
smoke pot in front of their kids? How many adults feel that what they do in
their own home is none of anyone's business? How many young people know
exactly what the adults are doing just as we knew what our parents and
adults were doing when we were teens? When our society is overrun by
illicit drugs, then it is everyone's business.

How about those that say a little pot never hurt anybody? Experimenting
with pot leads to experimenting with other drugs. Very few hard drug users
went straight to hard drugs without starting with pot. A little pot can
hurt in the long run. The facts have been reported over and over.

Drug use of all kinds are at a dangerous level in this community. It is at
a dangerous level when drug overdoses no longer rile up the people to take
action. It is treated like just an unfortunate incident; bad luck or not
any of our business. Let the Peacekeepers handle it or the social services.

It should be very clear to anyone that, with all due respect to these
agencies, they cannot do the job alone. Institutions get caught up in
bureaucracy, rules and regulations that limit their effectiveness.

We, the collective people of Kahnawake, the parents, aunts, uncles, grand
parents and the leaders, have to change our attitude towards solving the
drug and alcohol abuse in our community. It has to be a community effort.
Like coming together during the Ice Storm or cleaning our streets on Earth
Day, we can make a difference when we want to.

It takes a common effort to defeat a common enemy. We all have a common
problem in our community and we have to come together to defeat that enemy.
To admit defeat, that the drug problem is too big to solve, is to surrender
to the further decaying of our society and the eventual demise of our next
generation.

What are we leaving that next generation? By our inaction, we are saying
drug and alcohol abuse is OK because we didn't do anything about it when we
saw it coming. Today we are witnesses to two and three generations of drug
users. It sets the pattern for the next generation to also be users. Where
will it end? We all have a responsibility to each other and to our youth.
It is time to take immediate and extraordinary steps to prevent the
increased use of alcohol and drugs in our community and prevent any further
injuries or deaths.