CONCERNED DAD TAKES POT SHOTS IN MTYP DRAMA

TORONTO playwright David S. Craig is not blowing smoke when he talks about
the threat marijuana poses to teens today. "I'm looking at a world talking
a lot about the hockey lockout while most adults don't have a clue we're
number one as a drug-consuming nation," says Craig, whose new drama
Smokescreen opens Friday at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People.

"We're at the top. Our kids smoke more marijuana than any other developed
country.

"I think it's the biggest unspoken health hazard among young people today."

How did Craig, who will admit to having inhaled some herb in his time,
become so hopped up against pot use? Seeing the effects it had on his children.

"We would know they were stoned by how they were acting," says the
52-year-old writer of the award-winning play Danny, King of the Basement.
"It affected their schoolwork and they said it didn't." The resulting
conversations piqued the interest of the playwright in Craig, who thought
them so dramatic and lively that they became the heart of Smokescreen,
which after a few school shows in Toronto last week makes its public debut
in Winnipeg.

Smokescreen takes place in the office of a youth-care worker who has been
ordered to assess 16-year-old Trent, recently convicted of trafficking in
marijuana. His pot use jeopardizes not only his freedom but his
relationship with his hard-line father who shows up at the meeting.

The drama hits pretty close to home, as the pothead Trent is being played
by Craig's 21-year-old son Andrew.

"The laundry in this case isn't so dirty," he says, from his home
yesterday. "To say my kids smoke marijuana hardly besmirches their reputation."

It was not easy for Craig to attack the world's most commonly used illicit
drug, which a majority of his generation consumed. But he couldn't ignore
statistics that suggest the number of Canadians using marijuana appears to
have doubled over the last decade. Or that 10 kids from the local school
had been sent to the hospital for treatment of marijuana addiction.

"It totally made me feel like a hard-ass," Craig says. "My son wanted to
know why I was doing this to him when none of his friend's parents were
doing it. I felt very square and out of league with my groovy friends."
Society's benign view of pot use is rooted in the fact that most boomers
inhaled and they weren't harmed. Most citizens are completely distracted by
the law because they don't believe in it, and favour marijuana being
decriminalized, Craig says.

"If we treated marijuana like alcohol, It would be a big step forward," he
says. "If the community thought teens were dealing mickeys of vodka out of
their lockers at lunchtime, we would be outraged. If you walk into any high
school in Winnipeg a lot of kids are toking during school hours.

"Ultimately, it's a piece of theatre that is trying to say marijuana can
cause problems. It seems like a banal thing to say."

Smokescreen will play to 6,000 teens before it closes Mar. 4. Tickets are
$12 and for show times call MTYP at 942-8898.