STUDENTS TALK DRUGS

City police say a program aimed at keeping drugs out of schools
appears to be working.

Local school boards and law enforcement agencies launched a program in
late 2009 to address drugs in schools by using high school role models
to reach kids in the upper elementary grades.

Police Chief Bob Davies said the stats point to a change for the
better.

Two years ago, police nabbed 76 students in a beginning-of-the-school-year
clamp-down on drug use on or near school property.

By the next year, that number had fallen to 24 arrests.

"Some of that is because of awareness - (students) know we're clamping
down and they're not going to be conspicuous in the open - but I'd
like to believe that a lot of the reason too is that the message is
getting out, that the program is having its effect on the students and
there is a message there and less students are using drugs on school
property," said Davies.

Rather than focusing on enforcement, Project ABCD (Action for Building
a Community that is Drug free) counts on high school students to act
as ambassadors to the upper elementary grades.

Students met at a youth symposium on Thursday to discuss the
problem.

Riley Roth, a Grade 11 student at Korah Collegiate and Vocational
School, has been working as a student facilitator in the program since
the fall. She said it's important to show the younger students that
there are high school students who don't use drugs, and who are successful.

"I think the best thing we can do is just be passive role models and
not to tell them what to do directly," said Roth, vice-president of
her school's student council.

An ADSB survey taken late in the 2008-2009 school year, had 24 per
cent of respondents claim they were using drugs, mainly marijuana, on
a daily basis.

Davies said among the suggestions at Thursday's meeting was more
surveys.

Matt Sicoly is president of the student council at St. Mary's. He said
it's important to reach the younger students.

"There's two different ways of looking at it. For elementary schools
it's about don't even try it, and for high schools, it's about this is
how we can help you, this is how you can stop doing drugs," said Sicoly.

Davies said the goal is to make the demand for drugs dry
up.

"The message from students, I believe, is a lot more compelling, than
it is coming from the police or from addiction research professionals.
Students will listen to students," said Davies.