DRUG USE ON THE RISE FOR YOUTH

Statistics across Canada are showing more adolescents are experimenting
with drugs and alcohol and Border City youth are no exception.

Lloydminster Meridian Booster - Statistics across Canada are showing more
adolescents are experimenting with drugs and alcohol and Border City youth
are no exception.

In a report based on data collected from 4,296 youth aged 12 to 15,
Statistics Canada said 42 per cent had consumed at least one drink of
alcohol and one-fifth had smoked marijuana or been drunk. Among the
15-year-olds the proportions rose to 66 per cent having at least one drink,
44 per cent having been drunk while 38 per cent reported smoking marijuana.

"There's a lot of kids using marijuana and we're seeing more in our offices
for that," said Daryl Arneson, youth counsellor at the Walter A. 'Slim'
Thorpe Recovery Centre outpatient office.

When the outpatient office opened in 1990, Arneson said alcohol was the
primary addiction followed by marijuana use. The two have now turned tables
as marijuana use is now the primary addiction.

He said recent statistics from the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Commission show 26 per cent of students in Grades 7 to 12 have smoked
marijuana nearly doubling from the 16 per cent in 1997. Those statistics
rise to 41 per cent among only the Grades 10 to 12 students.

"We've seen a big jump in the past seven years," he said.

Arneson said the biggest age group he currently works with is youth ages 15
to 17.

"They need to belong, be accepted ... that pulls kids into a lifestyle of
using," he said.

All the talk about decriminalizing marijuana hasn't helped steer kids away
from the drug.

"It's a little bit more socially acceptable to use pot."

With trends showing a higher marijuana use among kids, Arneson said that
will soon lead to higher numbers of youth using harder drugs.

"It can be a stepping stone into harder drugs," he said, adding almost all
the youth he counsels for harder drug use started with marijuana.

"Once they become introduced into the drug culture, they lose some
apprehension and fear."

Once youth no longer get the desired high from pot, that's when they start
to explore harder drugs.

"The kids are dabbling into the other stuff," said Arneson. "Crack is a
definite concern."

Cpl. Andy Seidmann of the Lloydminster RCMP detachment sees a lot of this
drug in the Border City.

"Crack and cocaine is very prevalent in Lloydminster," he said. "We see a
lot of use of that.

"There's teenagers 15 to 16 that are into that and it carries right on into
people that are in their 50's. It's quite a cross-section of users as far
as age goes."

Seidmann said the drug abuse in the city can have an impact on other
criminal activities.

"When we had a high number of residential and business break-ins back at
the end of last year, we saw an increase in crime that way and we know that
was related to the drug scene."

But there are things parents can do to help reduce the chances of their
children getting mixed up in drugs before it escalates.

Arneson said early warning signs of marijuana use is similar to normal
adolescence behaviour: acting out, moodiness, rebellious and argumentative.
But he said the key to detecting use is when these signs become excessive.
Arneson said the first thing parents need to do is to drop the mentality
that it can't happen to them or their family.

"It Can Happen to Us."

Craig Featherstone, executive director of the Slim Thorpe Recovery Centre
said parents need to face the reality that their kids will come in contact
with drugs. "Their kids are going to have the opportunity. Are they going
to say yes or no? Almost all of them are given the opportunity to do it."

He says parents need to start looking for warning signs in early
adolescence, often as early as 11 years old.