'THEY BLOCK OUT REASON'

Drugs are fun. They give pleasure. They feel good.

And no amount of hounding that they'll fry the user's brain, ruin lives and
destroy relationships will make the slightest difference.

That's because illicit drugs - marijuana, heroin, coke, meth - are
seductive and powerful, and all the messages of doom and condemnation will
fall on deaf ears.

The drugs' addictive, seductive power gives users a false sense of
belonging, confidence and euphoria that block out common sense and reason.

That, in a nutshell, summed up a Wednesday Drug Awareness Forum presented
by Parents As Partners in Learning, a committee comprised of
representatives of the Langley school district and a number of local
agencies, and parents.

The group's mandate is to provide up-to-date information to help parents in
a number of areas, including drug use among their children. In the forum,
which was moderated by Barry MacDonald, a registered clinical counsellor
with the Langley School District, a panel of speakers, including a doctor,
former teen drug users and a police officer, shared information with
several dozen parents and a handful of students.

After the meeting, MacDonald said that one of the strongest messages
emanating from the forum was that the drug problem is not an enforcement issue.

"This is a community issue and we have to join together and glean from the
expertise in the community," he said.

MacDonald told the forum: "We have to face the reality that kids use drugs
because it feels good. We live in a North American culture that is addicted
to making things good, including a quick fix, but there is no quick fix to
this."

The best experts may be the drug users themselves, at least once they have
kicked the habit. The forum heard from several of them and they had
important advice for parents whose children are taking drugs.

Monica, a Grade 12 student from Langley, told parents how they can make a
difference to their drug-addicted children: "Just be supportive. Learn what
your kids are doing. Educate yourself. Don't get mad . . . be gentle."

Monica should know. She got into drugs as a young teen and described how
she loved the good feeling they gave. She couldn't believe that they could
harm her until she started doing harder drugs and things began to go downhill.

She told how she "stopped having a relationship with my Dad . . . he chased
me down the street. When I was doing drugs, there wasn't anything anyone
could do (until) I got to the point where I asked for help."

She also lamented the lack of long-term detox centres in the Lower Mainland
- - she got clean at a Prince George facility.

Among the audience members was Langley City Councillor Terry Smith who
feared that crystal meth "is worse than all the other drugs."

Dr. Judy Higginson, an emergency ward physician at Langley Memorial
Hospital, explained the effects drugs have on the body, and allayed some of
Smith's fears about the extent of damage to the health of someone using
crystal meth.

The attraction of meth is that it's good for 12 hours, she said. "You don't
have to eat, you don't have to sleep," Higginson said.

The forum heard shocking facts about the age at which children start doing
drugs, and how easy it is for them to buy drugs.

Towards the end of the evening, MacDonald asked the students the age drug
use starts among school children. It usually begins in Grade 8 and 9, but
as early as Grade 7, one of the teens on the panel said.

Where can drugs be bought? MacDonald asked.

"Everywhere," one of the teens replied.

Ray and Nicola Hall formed From Grief to Action after the harrowing
experience of living with sons addicted to drugs.

They urged parents not to pull the wool over their eyes, but to acknowledge
and grasp the fact that people take drugs because it gives them pleasure.

"We lose credibility by not recognizing the short-term benefit," Nicola
Hall said.

A strategy to approaching children on drugs is essential if parents are
going to have a positive impact on them "even if you're not speaking their
language," her husband said.

The couple spoke of having to install locks on their bedroom doors to
prevent their sons stealing items which they would sell to finance their
drug habit.

Cpl. Dave Fleugel of Langley RCMP's drug section spoke of the pervasiveness
of drug use and trafficking, reciting figures that show how the problem has
escalated in only a decade or so.

He said it is a "sad reality" that today, someone can order drugs from home
and have them delivered more quickly than a pizza.

Fleugel said that in 2004, 29 crystal meth labs were discovered in Alberta
and B.C. - half the Canadian total. A bigger problem lies closer to home -
he revealed said that for every meth lab discovered in Langley, there are
three or four discovered in neighbouring Surrey.

A second forum will be held at Brookswood Secondary on Thursday, March 10,
from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Call 604 534-7891 to register.