DRUGS EASY TO GET AT, STUDENTS SAY

Educators Plan Drug-Prevention Events

Close to half of senior students at some West Island high schools are
trying and using drugs regularly, The Chronicle has been told, but
schools are doing their best to stem the tide of drug use among their
students by being proactive and putting the health of their students first.

"I would say there are probably 45 per cent of the kids in the senior
grades using drugs on a regular basis, and I think some of the ones
who are would surprise you," said a Grade 11 St. Thomas High School
student. "Smoking weed is like drinking beer for our generation, and
some of the kids who use it are the kids who are in the International
Program -- not your quote-unquote typical stoners," said the Pointe
Claire teen.

The percentage of students actually using drugs at school, though, is
much lower, the student said.

"You're talking about probably five out of every 100 students. Most
do it out of school," he said.

Another Pointe Claire teenager said marijuana, magic mushrooms, speed
(amphetamines) and cocaine are the drugs of choice for West Island students.

"Ecstasy isn't really very popular, but people have been doing
cocaine. I've done speed and smoked weed, but I've never touched
cocaine," said the Lindsay Place High School student. "Drugs are easy
to get at pretty much any school. It's all over," he said.

In the wake of the death of a teenager in Hudson due to complications
from taking ecstasy and the arrest of a student at Macdonald High
School in Ste. Anne de Bellevue for trafficking marijuana and
ecstasy, drugs in schools have taken on an added seriousness for
parents and school administrators alike.

"My job as principal is to ensure the safety of the students first
and foremost, and I take that very seriously," said St. Thomas
principal Chuck Merilees. "Whenever we hear rumblings about drug use
and drugs in the school, we act. Just this week, we had a couple of
locker searches. We tell the kids we would prefer you don't do drugs
and we have no tolerance for it in school. I think the situation in
Hudson has affected everybody immensely and we have a counsellor on
staff, who's very open to speaking to kids about drugs, and we'll be
hosting a couple of upcoming events, including Adopt-an-Alouette and
a play the focuses on stamping out smoking. One type of event we're
hoping to get moving on is a parent-education night. Even if we only
get 10 people, it will be worth it," he said.

Macdonald High School principal Jim Aitken said last week's arrest
was the first of several strikes the school has planned in its
private war on drugs.

"We're doing a follow-up with the kids involved," he said. Four other
students were arrested but not charged after police saw them hanging
around a drug deal taking place near campus. "It's part of concerted
campaign to get rid of drugs in this school and the process is just
beginning and will be continuing," he said, adding he feels drugs
have become popular with off-island youths -- a large number of whom
cross the Galipeault Bridge every day to attend the Ste. Anne de
Bellevue institution -- because there is less for teenagers to do in that area.

"I would say 'not enough to do,' because there's no public transit in
the off-island, kids can't get around. They get bored, and they get
into drugs, have parties and that's the result," he said.

A Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School student who has friends in
the off-island area agreed with Aitken.

"Why do you get high? Because it's something to do. In the off-island
area, there's nothing to do. Hudson is an area where a lot of the
kids do drugs and a lot of the kids who do drugs don't ever get out
of Hudson. It's really pathetic when you consider it," he said.

The Grade 10 student said drug use at PCHS is far less commonplace.

"It really doesn't seem that bad at my school. There are kids who
smoke pot occasionally, but it doesn't seem out of control. You don't
really hear stories about massive amounts of drug use," he said.

PCHS principal Cecil Humphries said drug-prevention speakers visit
the school on a regular basis, such as Jade Bell, a motivational
speaker from Vancouver who overdosed on heroin four years ago and can
no longer see or speak.

"That hit home with a lot of students," Humphries said, adding he is
instituting a peer-counselling program where four Grade 10 and 11
students will get training in how to talk to their fellow students
about the hazards of drugs.

"Your greatest influence is your peer group -- students always listen
more to their peers than they do to their adults," he said.