FORUM CONTINUES FOCUS ON DRUGS AND YOUTH

Powell River leads in a movement to shift attention from adult drug
use to prevention among youth

Addictions specialist Dr. Ray Baker will be in Powell River on January
26 to talk about drug issues facing youth.

The presentation is a follow-up to a community forum held in April
2003 that looked at the effects drugs have on youth and other
drug-related issues. "This is a huge issue for us in schools," said
School District 47 assistant superintendent Jay Yule.

Baker will discuss the problem, the current prevalence statistics,
gateway activities, risk factors for addiction, drug-specific problems
such as marijuana and youth, methamphetamines, cocaine and alcohol. He
will also look at signs and symptoms of substance use disorders,
evidence-based strategies, treatment, community mobilization and a new
school district policy on drug and alcohol use.

"We have proposed a new policy [on drug and alcohol use] and we have
sent it out to various groups to comment on," said school board
chairwoman Pauline Galinski. "It will be quite a strong policy if it
goes through as it is written. Our mandate is to see that our schools
are drug free . . . We can't stop kids from smoking drugs after
school, that's a community issue. Someone else has to pick up the
slack and do something about drugs in the community."

There will be two seminars held on Wednesday, January 26, the first at
1 pm for district staff, service providers and others who work with
youth. Anyone who works with youth and is interested in attending the
first seminar can register by contacting Jan Grants, administration
secretary at the school board office, at 604.414.2600 by January 21. A
second seminar will be held at 7 pm at Oceanview Middle School for
parents and interested community members.

Baker is on the faculty at the University of British Columbia, chair
of the BC Medical Association's addictions committee and runs an
addictions centre in Vancouver. He has participated as primary
investigator in a number of primary research projects including the
World Health Organization's study on physician attitudes, knowledge
and skills regarding their patients' alcohol problems.

In 2000, Powell River school trustees put forward a motion regarding
federal focus on youth marijuana use at the BC School Trustee
Association's (BCSTA) annual general meeting in Penticton. That motion
noted that the federal government has focused largely on adult use of
marijuana in debates regarding decriminalization and medical
applications. The motion stated: "Marijuana has significantly
different effects on young people than on adults. It is important for
policy-makers to recognize that while marijuana may be seen as a
moderate drug in its effects on adults, it has serious short- and
long-term negative effects on young people."

Medical experience suggests marijuana can compromise short-term
memory, cognitive ability and personal initiative in young people. The
Powell River motion and a resolution that urged the federal government
to shift its focus on the marijuana debate from adult use to
prevention of use among young people was passed unanimously at the
Penticton BCSTA annual general meeting.

In January 2003 Powell River school trustees wrote a letter to then
education minister Christy Clark about the destructiveness of
marijuana on adolescents. In the letter, Galinski referred to the
motion passed by BC School Trustees three years earlier.
"Unfortunately the concerns expressed by the school trustees of this
province on this issue seem to have disappeared into a black hole,"
she said.