GRADE 4 STUDENTS GET DOPE ON CRYSTAL METH

The question came out of the blue.

"Would you have more fun on the fair rides if you did crystal meth?"
Janice Male's 10-year-old grandson bluntly asked her one day.

Male's grandson was one of 80 Oaklands elementary school students to
take part in the inaugural Crystal Meth Society of B.C.'s drug
awareness program DrugAware 101, aimed at Grade 4 and 5 students.

It's a program Male believes may help children, like her grandson,
break through the chatter fed to them in fair grounds and school yards.

That's the whole propose of the program, said its creator Mark
McLaughlin.

The presentation clarifies information and empowers youth to realize
it's their decision and that they can say no, he said.

McLaughlin and his wife Ruth's child was introduced to crystal meth at
14 years of age. Four years later, their child still struggles with
the addiction.

The McLaughlin's plight became the foundation of the Crystal Meth
Society of B.C., which they formed in 2005. To date, they have made
presentation to 45,000 students in Grade 6 to 12.

The presentation went over well at Oaklands, said principal Mike
Phelan. There were more raised hands than could be answered.

"Kids are inquisitive, they want to know about these things," he
said.

The quires ranged from why the drugs are made in the first place, to
how does one say no without hurting someone's feelings.

Although some of the questions may seem naive, the information the
students receive gives them exit strategies for later years when they
might be offered drugs, said Phelan.