SUBSTANCE ABUSE FOCUS OF SAFETY GALA

The Agriplex was packed Monday night as Lakeland residents gathered to
support safety initiatives in the region at the Lakeland Safety 1st Safety
Gala.

The evening's festivities featured presentations from two different
speakers: Louise Knox, the former president of MADD Canada, and injury
prevention expert Dr. Louis Francescutti.

Five years ago, Knox's 16-year-old son, Mike, was coming home from work
when a drunk driver swerved into his lane, hit his vehicle and killed him
instantly.

"Instead of picking out universities, we were picking out caskets," said
Knox. "Instead of deciding on music to play at his wedding, we had to pick
out music to play at his funeral."

Knox said she remembers some things vividly from that night, like the 22
steps it took for the St. Paul RCMP officer to walk to her door, the sound
of his knock and the tear in his eye.

She got involved with MADD because of something Mike said to her before he
died. At a soccer game against Cold Lake he told her he wasn't quitting,
even though his team was losing.

"He said, 'You never retreat. You attack from the rear.' By God that's what
I'm doing with impaired driving," Knox said.

In the police report filed after her son's death, the two co-workers who
were with the man who killed her son said he was so drunk he was spilling
beer and couldn't talk. But they let him get behind the wheel of his
vehicle because they thought he was OK to drive. His blood alcohol level
turned out to be almost three times the legal limit.

"It's wrong. Any amount of alcohol that impairs your judgement is wrong,"
Knox said.

Every day in Canada, there are four deaths and 190 injuries as a result of
impaired driving.

"The social costs we all face, that my family has had to face, are
inexcusable," Knox said.

She urged everyone present to lead by example and to help others make the
right choice by taking away their keys and preventing them from driving
while impaired.

Francescutti's presentation was about preventing substance abuse. Titled
"Substance Abuse or Why the Hell Do You Need That Stuff Anyway?",
Francescutti focused his presentation on the root cause of substance abuse
- -- unhappiness.

"Are you happy?" he asked everyone. "You're either happy or you're not
happy. If you're not happy then have a drink because that's why most of you
drink."

Francescutti said people who aren't happy will try to make themselves happy
by buying things, drinking or doing drugs.

"Then you're unhappy again and you need to take more," he said.

Francescutti said society is too focused on needing money to be happy.

"Happy people can be very poor and rich people can be very unhappy," he said.

He also said people need to start talking openly about mental illness,
without fearing the stigma surrounding it.

"More Albertans kill themselves than die in car crashes," he said.

Francescutti said 30 to 40 per cent of people suffer from mental illness,
but unlike other diseases, people don't talk about it.

"Most people won't seek help because of the stigma around metal illness,"
he said.

Instead, they self-medicate with booze or drugs.

Francescutti also spoke about impaired driving and what makes the Cold Lake
area special. He said the rate of impaired driving in the Cold Lake AADAC
service are is more than double that of the province.

"You can tell by the number of beer boxes in the ditches," he said.

Francescutti said the key to dealing with substance abuse problems is to
make people healthier and happier, starting with our interactions with
other people.

"The health care system doesn't make you healthy," he said. "What do we all
crave? Love."

Francescutti said love is important but nobody talks about it.

"If you don't have love in your life, you won't be happy," he said. "If you
can't love yourself, who wants to love you?"

Francescutti said making someone feel loved starts when people are babies.

"The first 18 months of life is the most important time in a child's life,"
he said. "We need to raise our kids to become 100 per cent and we're not
doing it."

Again, Francescutti said, changes need to be made to the way society does
things.

"It use to take 30 adults to raise a child. Today we have 30 children and
one teacher," he said. "The school system is not working."

Francescutti said people need to start focusing on each other, looking
after each other and getting back to basics.

"We've got to stop and relook at what's important to us," he said,
explaining if we do that we'll be happier and the substance abuse problem
will disappear.