IT'S HARD TO BE IN DENIAL NOW

If you've been hiding under a rock somewhere and haven't noticed that
Bonnyville's drug problem affects the whole community, it's time to
climb out of your hiding place.

Just read the story on the previous page. In amongst all the questions
you'd expect a Grade 6 student to ask Bonnyville's new mayor and
council, was a question on what council is doing about drug dealers.
The student who asked it said she was afraid to walk to her home one
day because the house next door is full of drug dealers and there was
a man with a bat in the front yard who looked menacing. Afraid to walk
past him, she sought refuge in a neighbour's house instead.

So much for the theory that the drug users and dealers are only
hurting themselves or that if we ignore the problem it will go away.
If children are afraid to walk our streets in broad daylight what kind
of community have we created?

And just how do we answer the girl's question? What are we, as a
community, doing to change things?

The Bonnyville Coalition for Addiction-Free Living has been hard at
work educating people about how harmful drugs are, especially
methamphetamines. They've held sessions for professionals who might
come into contact with drug users, for parents, teachers and even our
children. It's all valuable information which hopefully may prevent
our drug problem from escalating.

Unfortunately, that information doesn't help that girl get home safely
after school lets out. Nor does it do anything to ease the mind of the
people who live around that house, not the only one in town by the
way, who live in fear for their safety.

It also doesn't stop drug dealers from approaching our youth near
their schools, offering to sell them drugs. All of the information
we've given them may make it easier for our children to say no and
walk away, but does that mean it's okay for them to be approached in
the first place? There is no simple solution to the problem. We have
to rely on the RCMP and our justice system to deal with the people
selling drugs in our community.

The only real thing each of us can do is promise ourselves not to look
the other way, not to become complacent, not to convince ourselves
that it's someone else's problem. The truth is, the worse this problem
gets, the more it harms all of us and undermines all the hard work
everyone has done to build our community.

Most of all, the worse this problem gets, the more it harms our
children, the future of our community. Are they going to want to raise
a family in Bonnyville knowing that they didn't feel safe walking home
after school when they were a child? Would you?

Think about that the next time you're trying to convince yourself that
the drug problem doesn't affect you.