DRUG COUNSELLOR DISCUSSES DRUG ISSUE AND EASY ACQUISITION

The local drug problem in the Valley is not going away anytime soon.
According to local addiction counsellors, prescription drug abusers are
more determined than that.

Concerned members of the community gathered at the Madawaska Valley
District High School library this past Monday night to discuss youth drug
addiction.

"It's not going to go away, it's a coping mechanism," Chris Cancade,
Renfrew County Alcohol, Drug and Gambling Assessment/Referral Service
addiction counsellor, said at the meeting.

"You're still going to have kids using drugs."

He said it doesn't make sense to try and remove a drug from an area.

"If you shut it down there will potentially be trouble," he said. "There
will be an increase in crime and violence."

Cancade said addicts will find OxyContin through other means or turn to
other drugs, for example Tylenol with codeine. That is much more dangerous,
he said, because it takes more pills to reach the high (or low as it were)
provided by OxyContin.

Youth have many pressures to overcome, some worse than others. Cancade said
self-esteem and peer pressure play a big role in drug use.

"Adolescence is tougher now than it's ever been," he said. "There's no
logic to it. It provides temporary comfort in this world, but that friend
turns into an enemy."

Cancade said youth today live busy lives and they're used to the bustle.
Young people are bored regardless of all the video games, activities and
television available today, he said.

Home life for some young abusers is less than perfect and sometimes even
abusive.

"Some of these kids live in hell," he said.

He said prescription drug abuse is a somewhat new trend with rural youth.

"Chemicals are a big move for youth. It goes from alcohol to cannabis to
taking a pill," he said. "They think, 'this stuff is clean, the government
makes it.'"

For more of this story please pick up this week's edition of Barry's Bay
This Week.