EDUCATING YOUTH ABOUT DRUGS CAN CHANGE ATTITUDES

Sometimes youth depend on their peers for information about drugs. They
mistakenly believe what their friends tell them, and often what they're
told is all wrong.

Constable Gus Papagiannis, a member of the RCMP's drug awareness service
for Vancouver Island district, knows that not everything youth are told is
true and does what he can to prevent misinformation being taken as gospel.

"It's like here's the myth but here's the actual reality," said Papagiannis
in a recent interview.

Papagiannis was in Powell River on April 25 to talk to students at
Oceanview Middle School about drugs.

He said that getting people to change their attitude toward drugs has to do
with community mobilization. "You don't want youth falling into a trap.
Once they get into it, it's really hard to get out."

Papagiannis said that youth tell him they start using drugs to deal with
stress, because of peer pressure and because they're bored.

"It's an easy out--to smoke a joint and get drunk. It's hard to develop
skills to deal with stress."

Peer pressure is another common reason. And interestingly enough, it's not
because youth are actually being pressured by their friends to smoke a
joint. Often they choose to do it because they don't want to be the only
one not doing it.

"Curiosity is another one. These are kind of universal themes that come up.
If you know these, you can avoid falling into the traps."

Papagiannis said that more and more youth are smoking marijuana these days
than in the past. "And many will smoke marijuana before smoking a
cigarette," he pointed out.

He attributes this to strong anti-tobacco campaigns. "Kids will tell you
it's not cool to smoke." Since the government began cracking down on the
availability, accessibility and affordability of cigarettes, there has been
a decline in the number of youth smoking.

Today's pot is 20 to 50 per cent stronger than it used to be. "Kids say
they get flashbacks and get paranoid from one or two tokes," said Papagiannis.

Youth also argue that marijuana is organic.

He said kids are being given a mixed message about pot. Because the
government is growing it, they think therefore it must be fine. But he said
a person must be desperately ill and in debilitating pain to be given the
go-ahead by the government to use marijuana. "There is no country in the
world that has it in their books that says marijuana is therapeutic."

He also talks to youth about the dangers of drugs such as crystal meth,
ecstasy or heroin. "Your first dose could be your final dose. How do you
know that dose isn't the one? It's a big risk."

More and more kids are turning to ecstasy these days, he said. They seem to
like it because it visually enhances experiences. "It's a touchy, feely
type of a drug."

According to drugs analyzed at the University of British Columbia's lab, 85
per cent of drugs found in ecstasy are not pure ecstasy. "They were
chemical cocktails," said Papagiannis.

He strongly believes that education is the key to changing people's
attitudes about drugs. "If you don't want drug dealers in town, educate
your kids not to do drugs and I guarantee they'll go away."