ANGRY PARENTS, DRUG DEALERS SET EACH OTHER STRAIGHT

Both Sides Learn Lessons From Face-To-Face Meetings In Only Program Of
Its Kind

It's Tuesday night in a Sherwood Park meeting room, and two clean-cut
young men with shy smiles take their place near the front. Hard to
tell, but they're both under house arrest at the moment, after years
on the street dealing drugs, beating up people, lying, wrecking their
own lives and messing up others.

It's also hard to tell what kind of welcome they'll get from this room
of parents desperate to get their own children off drugs. Why would
these hurting, angry adults want to talk to the kind of guys who lured
their children from them and into a destructive habit?

What good can come of this, you have to wonder.

A lot, as it turns out -- for both sides.

Barry, a former dealer from an affluent west Edmonton home, says
coming to this support group, Parents Empowering Parents, has opened
his eyes.

"Now I can see the impact I was having on the kids and on my parents.
I'm really glad I was given the chance to come here."

Tom agrees: "I learned we were hurting people and I didn't realize
that. But I also learned how to get my respect back and how to live
humanely."

For parents, meeting someone from the dark side can be a difficult
moment, but it's also helpful, says one parent, whose daughter is now
back home and doing well.

"It's brought a lot to that room," says the mom, who declined to be
identified.

"It puts a face on the dealer and you're always fighting that mystery
about what kind of person has done this to your child."

It turns out, sometimes they're "like my next-door neighbour," she
adds.

The program, unique in Canada, is the brainchild of Sherwood Park
probation officer Tina Dow. For a long time, she's been concerned
about the lack of followup for the convicted dealers who come through
her office. They have to break their own addiction to easy money and
destructive living.

Dow was convinced that forcing them to see the impact of their crime
on others would assist their own rehabilitation, a variation on
restorative justice.

So about a year ago, Dow took her proposal to PEP, the region's only
support group for parents of teenage drug users and a group she helped
organize five years ago.

As she suspected, both sides found out they have a lot to give each
other.

"Meeting the parents helps the dealers take personal responsibility
for what they've done,'' says Dow.

"They want to make amends ... to show the people they have wronged and
that they are now doing right."

As for the parents, they have a chance to ask questions from the
"experts" -- about the drug stash found in the basement, where their
kid stays on the street or where they get their drugs.

Surprisingly, at this February meeting, Barry and Tom are greeted with
warm smiles and the occasional hug from gathering parents. By now, the
two former enemies in the battle are allies. "But it didn't start out
that way," says Dow.