A WORLD OF DRUGS

Have a headache? Take some Tylenol.

Runny nose bothering you? Pop a cold pill - maybe Sudafed.

"We live in a culture where our children come to us and we say, 'Oh,
you have an owie, pop this pill,'" Dan Reist said.

The director of communication and research for the Centre of
Addictions Research of B.C. spoke Thursday near the tail end of a drug
awareness conference at the Mt. Paul Centre.

We're living in an over-medicated society, he said, and it's no wonder
more and more children are experimenting with substances. "What's the
harm that's being created and how do you prevent the harm from these
drugs?"

Reist told those in attendance - families, teachers, politicians,
social workers and drug and alcohol counsellors - it is possible, that
by putting so much emphasis on keeping children off "illegal" drugs,
we are doing more harm.

Legal drugs, alcohol, tobacco and prescription medication tend to get
lost in the hoopla over newer drugs, such as crystal
methamphetamines.

Reist said it makes sense to blanket the public and children in
schools with anti-smoking, anti-drinking campaigns.

But it's different for other substances.

"It's counter-productive doing large campaigns against crystal meth or
cocaine, or heroin. We're better off to target high-risk groups."

More attention, Reist said, should be paid to risk factors rather than
drug and alcohol use.

"We have to think of more than one kind of harm," he said, including
"harms related to the way the drugs are used.

"There are a variety of harms and if we're going to prevent those
harms, we had better have a variety of responses."

In an ideal world, he said, the No. 1 focus for drug and alcohol
counsellors ought to be on the long-term impacts of smoking tobacco.

"If you want cost effectiveness, that's where it is."

Second on the list of priorities, Reist said, needs to be curbing
binge drinking, or the short-term harm from alcohol
consumption.

Third, he said, are the long-term consequences from
alcohol.

"If we effectively reduce the use of tobacco and alcohol in young
people, then we can work on illegal drugs."

But by focusing on illegal drugs alone, Reist said, "can often create
mixed messages for young people."

Mixed messages, he said, that imply there are some drugs that are good
and some are bad.

To do all this seems relatively simple.

"It means enforcing the rules we already have and changing the
behaviour of adults."

For the most part, children aren't getting their alcohol and
cigarettes from the corner store or liquor store, he said.

"They're not buying it at the store. They're getting it from
adults."

And it's the community that must get together and begin talking about
their views on alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, he said, as marijuana
has become almost as prevalent as legal drugs.