TURN BACK DRUGS TIDE

ONE of the biggest questions facing parents today is: 'How can we protect
our children from drugs?' The temptations facing this generation are
greater than ever before.

Times have moved on from a sneaky cigarette behind the bicycle sheds at
school.

We are talking about exposure to substances which are capable of destroying
children's lives.

The risks are enormous. While Northern Ireland does not face the same scale
of problems as other cities in these islands, the reality is that we are on
the same road.

Soft drugs lead on, with grim inevitability, to hard drugs as young people
look for bigger and bigger kicks.

The most worrying thing about the present situation is the ease with which
drugs can be bought. One of our reporters, researching a story for our
investigations into Northern Ireland's drug culture, did not even have to
go looking for drugs. He was approached by a dealer as he stood at the bar
of a nightclub.

Dealers are known to target schools, and even primary school children have
been lured into drug-taking by their peers, or by older children used as
go-betweens by drug dealers.

The drug dealers' greatest recruiting sergeant is the natural instinct of
young people to experiment, to flirt with what is forbidden, and to push
themselves beyond the limits of acceptability.

Unfortunately, the impact of parental influence is weakest at the very time
when young people are most exposed. Teenagers are programmed to ignore
their parents.

In their turn, parents are ignorant of the world their children inhabit,
and are torn between the need to keep a close eye on them and the
realisation that their children have to find their own way in the world.

This week, the Health Promotion Agency is launching a campaign aimed at
parents. It aims to give them the tools to spot potential problems before
it is too late.

The campaign is necessary and timely. As Security Minister Adam Ingram says
in today's paper, Northern Ireland can turn the tide much more easily than
other parts of the world.

That is an encouragement, but it is also a challenge. If we want to secure
the future of our children, we must bring this issue to the top of the agenda.

MORE VIEWPOINT AT http://www.irishnews.com/current/viewpoint.html