HOW TO RESPOND?

Tomorrow's round table at the Hudson Community Centre has invited
what it hopes will be a critical mass of expertise to come up with a
methodology to counter the recreational drug use so prevalent in our
communities.

But addiction counsellors, street-drug experts and educators can only
do so much. As our story this week on the fallout from the death of
13-year-old Stevie Reilly points out, we can offer our young people
all the recreational opportunities possible, but they'll still
experiment with drugs, because they're now a rite of passage.

There's something else the experts can't supply. On Monday morning,
Dawn and Greg Reilly brought Stevie's little sister to our office to
bring us an In Memoriam for their dead daughter. We talked briefly
about all that has gone by since Stevie's death Feb. 6. Dawn said she
wanted to thank all the people who have showed so much kindness and
and sympathy over the past three weeks. But she can't forgive how
others broke the chain of trust that began when she entrusted Stevie
to the mother of Stevie's 14-year-old school friend. That chain broke
not once, but twice, when that friend's mother effectively entrusted
both girls to the mother of the 16-year-old who has pleaded guilty to
providing them with the party drug that killed Stevie.

Why do children as young as Stevie try drugs? Look at their websites,
because most of them have them. Read the chatrooms and guestbooks,
because they speak volumes about what the kids are thinking. It's all
about being cool and getting accepted in the cyberlinked extended
family of today's youth.

On one site dedicated to the memory of Stevie, there is a guestbook
filled with angry, remorseful posts. Some are hate-filled ventings
directed at the 16-year-old who took advantage of his age and
experience to seduce the two younger girls, but not because he
supplied them the ecstacy. In fact, in all the posts in that
guestbook, we did not find one condemning drugs, or warning of the
consequences of their use. What does that tell us about the role of
recreational drugs in our local sleepover society?

How to respond? We doubt most parents have the temperament required
to police their child's cyberspace, monitoring e-mails and cellphone
text messages and tracking websurfing. Today's teens are adept at
covering their tracks if they feel they must, and many say their
electronic family is closer in many ways than the people they live with.

Many parents want to see drug-sniffing dogs in our schools. They've
been used effectively at several West Island high schools, notably in
the territory covered by Community Police Station 1. Commander Michel
Lecompte believes in taking a hard stand against drugs, and that
includes busting anyone selling, buying or using. But the dogs can't
sniff out ecstacy or crystal meth, or any of the far more dangerous
amphetamine-based concoctions that are increasing in popularity among
today's young.

We still think the Lester B. Pearson School Board made a serious
mistake in splitting Westwood High School into junior and senior
campuses. The theory was that the separation would lessen the
pressure on the younger kids to be cool. But the corollary is that
the older kids look after the younger ones, especially if they see
signs that predators are taking advantage of the newbies' need to be accepted.

Some believe we're too permissive. One outraged Hudsonite called us
to rant about the poster for this month's battle of the bands at the
Community Centre. "Did you read those names," he roared. "Butt
Muffins, Delicious Young Boys what kind of message are we sending
when we allow this?" We respectfully disagree. Experimentation and
expression are part of maturing.

Are we doing enough? The Hudson Community Centre is closest to the
front line in this struggle of values called growing up. Next week,
we will be devoting plenty of space to what came out of the Community
Centre round table and where participants think the next steps should
take us. But we can guarantee this: Experts can talk forever, but
they're not the people who will get the job done. Read Lucie Tremblay's letter.