COUNSELLORS OFFER TEENS HONEST TALK ABOUT DRUGS

Frying eggs in skillets and proclaiming the brain sizzles while
smoking drugs never convinced a kid not to smoke a joint.

So with school back in session, addiction counsellors are back in
Whitehorse high schools, trying to help teens navigate the party
circuit and its allure of alcohol and drugs by offering simple, honest
and accurate information.

"You can't lie to teens about drugs," said Dale Gordon, supervisor of
treatment and standards at alcohol and drug services in Whitehorse.

"If you start using sensational language teenagers know the
difference. If you think you're going to scare them into not using
drugs, you're wrong."

Two addiction counsellors funded by alcohol and drug services will be
in four high schools and two specialty institutions on a regular basis.

Vanier, Porter Creek, Ecole Emilie-Tremblay and F.H. Collins all
will have the counsellors on call, and students at the Individual
Learning Centre and Riverfront School will also have access to them.

The addiction counsellors have been in high schools since
1999.

"Basically, we go into the school and provide services --
presentations in class, and counseling information for teachers and
parents, not just for the kids," said Madeleine Piuze, one of the two
addiction counsellors.

A counsellor's job is to be accessible in the schools, but also be
available to meet teens or their families at the Sarah Steele building
if they wish to remain more anonymous, she said.

During those talks, councilors focus on prevention, harm and risk
reduction and methods for safer partying.

"When you go talk, it's not to make them feel bad," Piuze
said.

"I inform them about the facts. It can be hard, but when you listen,
they are curious and then it's not that hard to talk to them."

Piuze is also making presentations to classes at the request of
teachers.

Ramping up tales of the dangers to scare kids away from drugs -- the
response drugs used to get from educators -- often does more harm than
good, Gordon said.

"The information has to be correct, because if you give misinformation
you lose credibility."

Counselors and parents have to be careful they don't invent symptoms
or side effects to scare kids away from drugs, he added.

It can easily happen.

During the 1960s, Canadian kids were sniffing glue and dying from it,
Gordon explained.

The official message that went out was that the glue was killing
children.

But the truth was that the teens were using plastic bags to sniff the
glue and dying from suffocation.

Good intentions aside, misinformation, "in itself has potential to
create problems," Gordon said.

If a teen asks about a drug, they should be able to receive accurate
information about it, he said.

For example, while many whisper about crystal meth on the streets of
Whitehorse, Gordon and Piuze have never heard from teens here who have
tried it.

But teens do try ecstasy on occasion, which has been found laced with
crystal meth by the RCMP, "enough times we know it's a danger," Gordon
said.

To help teens understand the true risks of ecstasy, they should know
that it could be laced with meth, noted both Piuze and Gordon.

Despite parental fears, not every kid who tries drugs will become
addicted.

Studies show almost every teen will try alcohol, and a large
percentage will try marijuana, said Gordon.

Behaviour that appears reckless from the outside is often quite
innocent in reality.

"They're not worried about an addiction," Gordon explained of the
hedonistic, binge drug use most teenagers exhibit.

"You're treating a group of people who haven't experienced the
consequences of addiction."

Those who do become addicted to drugs in their early teen years are
most often becoming hooked on drinking alcohol or smoking pot, said
Gordon.

And in many cases young people who are heavy users of drugs are not,
clinically speaking, addicts.

"They're just partying, but they're also in the beginning stages of
addiction," said Gordon.

Teen brains are still developing, as are their social
skills.

While the negative effects of a budding addiction to alcohol, for
example, won't show up when a 12-year-old begins drinking, by age 16,
big consequences like lost licences and a lack of social skills could
already be occurring, said both Piuze and Gordon.

They want to steer a troubled teen down a different
path.

The work is difficult, as drug use is most often merely a "symptom" of
bigger problems with teens and their families, said Gordon.

"We see it a lot; the drug is just a way to try to cope with anxiety,
stress, problems," he said.

Children raised in environments where they aren't loved and allowed to
develop a sense of self, often turn to drugs, he added.

"Drugs work very well and instantly for that type of
pain."

Identifying what drives a person to drugs is a major part of treating
an addiction, added Piuze, who is from Quebec City.

She didn't choose to help teens with drugs and addictions
issues.

Instead, it chose her, she said.

"I really found it to be a passion.

"It's very complex, but I think to work in prevention is a good way to
give youth an opportunity to have a different way to see things."

Youth work on addictions is incredibly hard, Gordon
added.

"Often you don't get to see the fruits of your labour.

"Sometimes your work doesn't come out until years later."