LET'S RETHINK DRUG DISCOURSE

We know drugs are harmful.

In grade school we get the this-is-your-brain-on-drugs lecture and
learn many ways to say no. But what's missing is how to say yes in
moderation. People of all ages are doing drugs, and it's time to
recognize that information based on abstinence does more harm than
good.

This was illustrated clearly on Oct. 23 when four teens, ages 13 and
14, were admitted to the Victoria General Hospital after overdosing on
what the youths thought was ecstasy, but may have been crystal meth.
They all survived. Considering they told police they had taken upwards
of nine pills, they were very lucky.

Perhaps nobody told the kids that they should take just one pill -
even half a pill - and wait to see its effect. Perhaps they didn't
know how to find a trusted dealer. When kids get into a situation
where they want to try a narcotic, the dialogue about harm reduction
is missing. Adults have only told them to say no and threatened them
with the damage they'll be doing to their bodies by choosing to use
the drug. They teach them to be afraid instead of informed.

It's necessary for teens to know which drugs are most harmful. Having
a teacher or RCMP officer come into a high school preaching the
virtues of marijuana abstinence because it is a gateway drug often
demeans their credibility when those kids see someone they know smoke
dope and not move on to harder drugs. If their information is
demonstrably false, why should students believe anything else these
leaders say?

Teaching 13-year-olds about safely using drugs might make parents
believe that it's encouraging them to do drugs at an early age. But
even for the kids who will choose to resist the pull of drugs, it's
useful for them to understand what's going on with their peers and
know the symptoms of an overdose. Facts learned at an early age can be
carried through life. There are many university students that still
don't know how to recognize dangerous habits.

High school students need access to resources that do more than scare
them about the harms of extreme drug use. That's not to understate the
risks of addiction and overdoses, because they are very real. But some
teenagers are going to get high no matter what anyone says to them, so
informing them on the expected effects of different narcotics, as well
as safe dosing quantities and techniques would reduce the risk of
inevitable youthful experimentation.

Instead of focusing on the risks of addiction, more should be done to
highlight the symptoms of addiction. This way, when a student
graduates high school and moves on to university, they will be more
self-aware when it comes to drug and alcohol use. Twenty-somethings
tend to throw caution to the wind as it is, but surviving their first
forays into drug and alcohol use without being aware of the demons
they may encounter can lead to a sense of indestructibility.

Kids need to learn about the real consequences of drugs - not just the
worst-case scenarios and the horror stories peddled from to school to
school by counsellors and the police, but also the very real,
recognizable effects of these drugs.