NEW PLAN ANNOUNCED TO HELP SCHOOLS FIGHT DRUG USE

OTTAWA -- Canadian schools are getting a new resource to help keep
kids off drugs.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse is releasing guidelines for
people who work in preventing teens from using drugs and getting
addicted. The guidelines are aimed at schools and community groups,
as well as groups who work with families on parenting skills.

"What we're doing is not just airy-fairy," said Michel Perron, head
of the centre.

"It's about experts telling us how it is you should engage with young
people. It's about practitioners who spend their days with young
people allowing (for) these skills to be used in the schools."

More than 60% of those who use illegal drugs are between 15 and 24
years old, according to the centre.

"Young people tend to use substances in more hazardous ways than
adults. It results in more harms, injury, overdose, car crashes and
sexual assault, and longer-term harms," said Marvin Krank, an
academic who helped develop the guidelines.

U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, who was at the launch in Ottawa, says
Canada is a leader in drug prevention policy. He says reducing drug
use in both countries would cut the drug flow from Canada into
America and the stream of guns from the U.S. to north of the border.