PICKING A PATH

Crystal Meth Grabs The Headlines But B.C. Teens Are Still More Likely
To Have A Problem With Alcohol Or Marijuana, Say Local Experts

As hot topics go, this summer, crystal methamphetamine is on the tip
of Kelowna residents' tongues.

Where it is? Who is on it? How much is out there? How can we avoid it?

Launched on May 18, the Crystal Meth Task Force has 90 days and
$20,000 in grants, to devise a strategy for protecting local youth,
finding help for those already addicted and deterring others from a
similar path.

As the vice-principal of alternative Storefront School, Doug Gray
knows where crystal meth leads and knows all too well the need for discussion.

"We are a growing community, struggling to deal with how to handle
people with drugs and mental illness. And it's a real problem," he said.

He can pinpoint, virtually to the hour, the moment meth showed upon
his doorstep three years ago-and he could point out the dealer.

For the four or five students it took out of his school that first
year, it was devastating.

He estimates less than 25 per cent but more than 10 per cent of kids
in Storefront use meth.

It has not hit the mainstream school system to any measurable
degree, say school board officials.

"It's a problem that's not large, but it is a big problem," he said.

For those it does affect, the rapid downward spiral leaves little
time for intervention.

But most high risk teen problems are more obvious.

His students are from troubled homes, often lacking parental
support. Many are struggling with the early signs of mental illness.
They self-medicate and smoke-up after school.

"Most of our kids drug," he explained. "It's so much in their
life,they can't separate it."

The tell-tale blue ring in a student's nostril lets him know they've
crushed up prescription Ritalin to snort it; he's had other students
who actively inject heroin when they're not in class.

"Students who are truly high risk are usually at that point in their
lives for a variety of reasons," he said.

"Anybody who works here could write a book on some of the horrible
things kids go through.

"They're detached, so they find each other. And they find each other
at 4:20," he added, using the popular drug reference for smoking dope.

Born and raised in Kelowna, Gray sees his hometown waking up to a new reality.

Where the good citizens of Kelowna once feared the druggies and
transients who brought problems to their lakeside town,a new breed
of drug-addicted poor are now born and raised here.

"We're growing our own kids that are born here, raised here and land
up on the streets here," he said.

The question is-how do you stop it?

Although drugs and alcohol can have devastating consequences for the
high risk youth Gray deals with, substance abuse is a problem for
every segment of society.

Yet it's not always the drugs that grab headlines that parents
should fear. While the nefarious effects of methamphetamine have a
near-stranglehold on public and media scrutiny these days, the
biggest problem substance among this country's youth,and certainly
for Okanagan teenagers, is alcohol; and the number one drug of
choice is still marijuana, more affectionately known as B.C. Bud.

An innovative project conducted among Okanagan students in the last
five years may hold some of the answers to why kids begin using and
abusing both substances.

Five years ago, then Okanagan University College professor Marvin
Krank began the Project on Adolescent Trajectories in Health
(PATH)-a three-year study looking at the development of high risk
behaviours, their outcomes and ways to predict a move toward problem
behaviours among youth.

In the two years since the study ended, he has published several
book chapters and papers on his findings and helped to develop a new
disciplinary system for kids caught with marijuana or paraphernalia
in the Central Okanagan School District.

And he's about to embark on a prevention program to radically alter
how adults pitch prevention messages to kids.

According to PATH figures, 38 per cent of boys and 42 per centin
Grade 9 have tried marijuana-figures similar to statistics gathered
by the non-profit McCreary Centre Society, which studies B.C. youths' health.

Krank's study shows social setting, cultural influence and family
relationships all play important roles in the decision to use; but
it also suggests that decision is not random. Outside influence can
be measured, assessed and used to predict risk.

"We know that parents who smoke marijuana are far more likely to
raise kids who smoke marijuana-and at an earlier age," saidKrank.
"Just as drinking parents increase the likelihood their kidswill drink."

The problem gets more complicated when you try to decide which
happy, healthy and well-adjusted children, with no obvious risk
factors, will slip down the same path.

In a speech delivered to the Crystal Meth Task Force kickoff,
Vancouver-based medical doctor and researcher Dr. Gabor Mate argued
the problem lies in the structure of our society.

Mate works with the severely addicted in Vancouver's DowntownEastside.

He believes kids yearn for an extended family network and close
community, and become detached from those important links before
they've had enough time to absorb the patterning of values.

He argues the key widespread drug abuse may lie in the stress placed
on modern parents, who don't have enough time to properly socialize
their children.

While the individual parent may not be to blame, trace back a user's
personal history and you will find evidence they were searching to
fill that void, he said.

It's a valid theory, by Krank's estimation.

Attachment, support and belonging are important.

But, like many who have a strong case, Krank believes Mate
overstates the point, overlooking outside influences.

From movies to magazines, video games and the news, kids, like the
adults who raise them, are constantly absorbing societal influences.

Watch a prime-time television show targeted at young teens and you
might pick up part of the problem.

One prime-time commercial currently on TV shows a group of happy
campers gathered around the fire, roasting marshmallows and dipping
them in a chocolate flavoured alcohol.

The commercials sell a lifestyle and it's a lifestyle attractive to
young kids.

Aired during peak viewing hours, the message doesn't escape prying
eyes or ears, nor does what it means.

"People don't force kids to do stuff. What's much more powerful is
that it looks like fun," said Krank, noting prevention campaigns
have given way too much credence to peer pressure.

His research team collected information on local drug use, sexual
behaviour, dating violence and a variety of other activities,
including what kinds of TV showskids watched and what kinds of video
games they played.

Whether from advertising, friends, family or any one of the hundreds
of influences we encounter each day, Krank's research shows it is
possible to measure which teens have absorbed these messages.
Furthermore, it is possible to predict their likelihood of drinking
or doing drugs based on the degree to which those messages are ingrained.

This fall he begins follow-up research to apply what he's learned.

He has permission from the Vernon School District and, resources
permitting, plans to refine a prevention programthat could change
how schools and families deal with teens and substance use.

Rather than the now all too familiar "Just Say No" message first
trumpeted by Nancy Reagan, Krank and his researchers want to create
individual messages for individual teens.

"If you send the wrong message, you lose them," he explained. "So if
a teen is using, you need to give them specific information."

The researchers will test kids using word associations and
questioning honed during PATH, then provide feedback based on their findings.

"You give factual feedback to identify discrepancies between what
someone wants out of life and where they actually are," he said.

It's a simple concept, but complex to deliver. The original study
cost half a million dollars and countless man hours to produce.

It required researchers to intensively code and decode answersto
those word associations and subsequent research to define what it meant.

Motivational interviewing work on marijuana users in the Central
Okanagan School District has shown him how important it is to
question the meaning of answers.

Ask kids what the first word that comes to mind when they hear the
word "bud", for example, and some will answer "light".

To figure what that means the researcher is going to need more questions.

"Bud light" can refer to beer, but it also refers to
marijuana-vernacular that flies over the average parent, cop or
teacher faster than a craftily-coded MSN message; and the language
is always changing.

Over the summer, Krank will define the program. He has hopes of
using an Internet delivery mode, making his information affordable
and accessible to those that need it.

There is also talk of a program for the university crowd, developing
a program that could help users identify whether their behaviour has
crossedthe line to abuser.

"That's the direction we're taking all of our programming now.
Yougive us some information, we'll give you some answers back on
that information," he said. "It's all self disclosure."

Is any of this going to prevent the kids from making it to Doug Gray'sdoor?

It's possible-although there are many more problems and needs than answers.

Ask Gray what would make his world simpler, he'll tell you he needs
a guide-someone who can deal with complex issues, concurrent mental
health and addictions issues and an understanding of difficult
family dynamics. Someone to help navigate the system.

While Krank may not have the answers to those questions, his
research might one day minimize the number of kids who make it to
Gray's classroom. And for those that do flounder: "There is no one
solution, but there are many paths to recovery," he said.