From The Other Side

THE GOOD NEWS IS FEWER KIDS ARE SAMPLING SPEED

Five years ago, a group of concerned parents asked AADAC addictions
counsellor Marsh Hoke to help arm them so they could protect their kids
from drugs.

Last week, a similar meeting was held in the library of Jubilee Junior High
School - but there was less tension and that's good news.

I remember attending that meeting and how some parents were adamant that
their kids weren't using speed, while others were worried sick about their
kids, who they thought were using it.

This time around, you could almost hear a sigh of relief as principal Larry
Medinski told the 30 people at the meeting that an anonymous survey done
earlier that day showed them only a small percentage of the school
population were using intoxicants of any kind - including cigarettes,
chewing tobacco and coffee.

I have to tell you, from where I sit, that's good news for the community.

Hoke attributed the disinterest to the fact that five years ago, youths
were not aware of the effects of speed, were not educated about the damage
it causes to a person's life and were relatively innocent when it came to
this drug.

As Hoke pointed out, when you talk to kids about alcohol, they understand
that it is an accepted drug, marijuana will lead to a discussion on whether
it should be legal or not, but speed is definitely something this group of
junior high school students don't want any thing to do with.

Unfortunately, this lesson was learned by them seeing their older siblings,
friends and relatives destroy their lives as speed users and that is a
terrible shame.

While it is incredibly sad, and more than a little frustrating, that a
group of young people experimented with a drug they knew very little about,
it is good to see that the youths coming up behind them have learned to
steer away from this thing by observation.

It is understandable, and even expected in some ways, that teens are going
to experiment with drugs, alcohol and gambling.

After all, these are children who are growing up, spreading their wings and
testing the waters of adulthood. It is expected that they will make
mistakes, judgement errors and slip, in fact, I know a lot of adults who
still haven't figured some of this stuff out yet - but the hope is that at
the end of this treacherous few years, they will come away relatively
unscathed.

I think now that the community has accepted this drug is in our community
and has taken the initiative to provide Edson's young people with the
knowledge and education about drugs in general, that we will continue to
see drugs move into the shadows of this town.

Not to say that we should let down our guard, because if we do, we are
letting down our kids. Instead, keep talking to kids, keep letting them
know you care - because even if they may not act like it matters to them,
it does and that may be the biggest factor in determining how many teens
find a need to use drugs in the first place.