BACK IT UP

Maple Ridge Mayor Gordy Robson is getting slapped for claiming that
half the students suspended in the local school district last year
were on meth.

School trustees have refuted his claims, as has a youth addictions
program director, and now others want some facts to back up his
anecdotal evidence.

School board chair Cheryl Ashlie said meth isn't so much a problem as
alcohol and marijuana.

Fact is, of the 507 school suspensions last year, 116 were for drug
use -- 93 of those for marijuana -- according to the school district.

Through a new partnership, such students can now spend their
suspensions getting counselled at Alouette Addictions.

Seems Appropriate.

Teens may start out drinking beer, smoke pot. And that may be enough
for them. But some will try other drugs, become addicted. If they
don't get help now, they could be living on the streets soon enough,
with only enough money to buy meth -- a "skank drug" used by "people
with no money," according to a clinical specialist at the Maple Ridge
Treatment Centre.

We understand how trustees and principals get defensive about their
schools and students. And it would be preferable to have accurate
information about the actual number of students drinking alcohol or
using drugs, and what kinds. But it is difficult to know that given
the secretive nature of teenagers, not to mention addicts. Often we
only hear of it after they get into trouble.

Robson wants to reach kids before they get into trouble, but alleges
that for the past year his crystal meth task force, which Ashlie was
initially a member of, has not been allowed to make presentations at
schools. That might change if he could back up his claims, or stop making them.