COMMUNITY ASKED TO HELP ANTI-DRUG EDUCATION

The RCMP is beginning a new anti-drug and alcohol initiative in Prince
Rupert called the Community Prevention Education Continuum (CPEC) as
the RCMP held a series of presentations last week to outline CPEC and
its goal to make sure that students from kindergarten to grade 12 are
told about the risks of drug and alcohol abuse every single year they
are in school.

Part of what police think will make CPEC more effective than other
prevention programs is that the students won't be exposed to the
anti-alcohol and drug message just by the police. Instead members of
the community are being encouraged to come and give presentations to
the students themselves. The hope is that if students see an anti-drug
and alcohol message from every part of the community, instead of just
law enforcement, the students will accept what they're being told
about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

"Working toward that common goal and same message, I think that's
the important part, to have that common message from the community
about having a healthy lifestyle and making healthy choices drug-free.
It's important to our kids so that they bend to this initiative,
that the community has the same message," explains Cpl. Anne House
of the RCMP's Drugs and Organized Crime Awareness Service.

"If youth hear the same message over and over from the RCMP they can
tune it out or think it's the RCMP's job to say this. But if they
hear it from the mechanic, the barber, the banker, the grocery teller
or others in the community it means more," she told the Prince
Rupert Rotary Club during its weekly Thursday meeting.

At the meetings House and another officer, Sgt. Anthony Choy, outlined
the program to representatives from different community organizations
and companies who attended the meetings to hear about the new program,
including Northern Health, the School District and the Edge Youth
Employment Centre.

The RCMP hopes that if they can change the beliefs of the kids as they
grow up they will affect the entire community's beliefs as well,
just like when trying to get people to wear seatbelts while driving.
The end result will be a community that sees all drug and alcohol use
as unhealthy and unacceptable.

"It's not just for the kids. It's the changing of the normative
belief of the entire community and it will have a ripple effect that
will affect other communities. It's a positive thing," said Choy.

The presenters responded to the possible criticism of the goal of a
drug and alcohol free student population as being unrealistic by
saying that goals aiming for harm-reduction and not prevention were
defeatist.

"oeThat's the beauty of CPEC: It's focusing on the positive and
not the defeatist thinking that "'oh, they're going to drink
anyway.' It's proven that there are students who don't
necessarily drink and don't take drugs," said Choy.

Most representatives at the meeting The Northern View attended
appeared enthusiastic about the new program and its possibility of
finding a more effective way of dealing with the Drug and Alcohol
abuse in Prince Rupert.

Erica Morgan, a grade 12 students from Charles Hayes Secondary School
voiced her concern that no matter how universal or constant the
message is from the community, other things like youthful curiosity
and popular culture can still undermine the message.

"I think its kind of hard to get it through to kids when they say
things on the TV shows, like it doesn't get more blatant than Family
Guy...It had this song directed right towards weed," said Morgan.

The RCMP hopes to have CPEC up and running sometime in the new year.