DRAFT POLICE FOR DRUGS AIMS AT SOBER STUDENTS

Two messages were sent at a Community Response to Drug Issues forum on
Wednesday, January 26.

One was from the forum's guest speaker, addiction specialist Dr. Ray
Baker, who made it clear that marijuana can do great harm to a
maturing brain.

The other was from School District 47, delivered by assistant
superintendent Jay Yule, whose message was that schools are thinking
of letting other agencies deal with repeat drug offenders while the
school district gets on with the business of education.

Baker began the evening with a presentation about the dangers of
addiction, particularly addiction to marijuana. He is the medical
director of Healthquest, a private clinic in Richmond, BC. The company
has a website at www.healthquest.ca and interested readers can click
on the Media link and find several presentations relating to addiction.

At the Powell River forum, Baker made a convincing case for abstaining
from marijuana in adolescence because it affects the actual process of
maturation. "A user who stops at age 30, their brain may go back to
normal," said Baker, "but their emotional state may not." He also
mentioned that if people don't start an addiction by age 19, they
often don't start at all.

"I seldom see a drug that's more specifically hazardous to
adolescents," he said of marijuana.

Baker discussed strategies such as the pledge, which he called
contingency management, effective refusal skills, family activities
and treatment of associated illnesses. His preferred treatment program
is cognition behaviour therapy, although he acknowledged that others
such as 12-step programs can be effective.

Yule outlined a fundamental change in philosophy represented by the
school district's new draft drug policy. It is based on "the belief
that our past policy wasn't working very well." The old policy always
allowed a path back into the school, and anecdotal evidence suggested
there was no deterrence. "The overall culture in the schools was being
affected," he added.

The new policy is essentially a three strikes policy. "We want them
[students] to be at school, sober, and perhaps we are not the best
resource" for help with drugs, he elaborated. Social agencies that
might fill that role were given the same presentation the afternoon
before the evening session for parents and students.

Of the approximately 50 parents, educators and students attending the
evening session, most seemed in favour of the new policy. Discussions
included random drug testing, the smell of drugs on a student, locker
and clothing searches and association as a basis for
intervention.

"Tough love is the way to go, although you need more than just that,"
said Baker when asked about the new drug policy. He maintained that
real consequences are necessary to a successful policy.

"Our function is to provide an education," said Yule, adding that the
policy is really targeted toward re-offenders.

People wanting information or to comment on the school district's
draft policy can contact the district office.