POLICE BATTLE RISE IN DRUG USE

'Myths' Targeted

Efforts to stem the rising tide of cocaine use among youth are getting a
helping hand from the long arm of the law, as local police reach out to
pre-teens with a message of clean living and smart choices.

"(Cocaine use) has definitely increased over the years," OPP Insp. Jim
Szarka said of the drug's surging popularity. "Years ago there wasn't as much."

Combatting the myths that make it and other drugs so appealing is an
ongoing job, which is why Szarka's detachment believes so strongly in its
17-week DARE program, a collaborative effort involving teachers, students,
and parents that aims to prevent drug abuse and violence.

Working in area schools, officers teach Grade 6 students to recognize and
resist the peer pressures that could lead them to experiment with alcohol,
cigarettes, pot, cocaine and other drugs.

"It is really important," Szarka said of the program.

"It is giving the kids the education and the tools to make the right
decision in the future. The officer builds up a really good relationship
with the classes. It is a really positive, proactive environment."

Police stress to students the importance of self-esteem, empathy, decision
making, and conflict resolution, while offering positive alternatives to
drug abuse and other risky behaviours.

"Obviously, not everyone is going to make the right decision.

"But at least they have the tools to make the right decision and stay free
from substance abuse and criminal behaviour," added Szarka, who has
attended dozens of DARE graduations.

Keith Bell, an addiction counsellor with Simcoe Outreach Services, has
witnessed first-hand the casualties of cocaine use while working with area
youth struggling to break free of the drug's grasp.

Once limited to select groups of teens, among them "street kids," the lure
of coke today knows no bounds, said Bell, a 10-year veteran in the field of
addiction treatment.

"Now you are seeing it in all populations, which is kind of a shocker," he
told Orillia Today this week. "It is hitting home with everybody."

With offices in Barrie, Orillia, Collingwood, Alliston and Midland, the
non-profit agency offers free counselling and aftercare for addictions to
gambling, alcohol and other drugs.

A recently developed in-home withdrawal program delves deeper still, in an
attempt to discover the root cause of the addiction.

"It is a little more intense, getting down to the reasons why you are
using," said Bell, citing low self esteem and peer pressure as common factors.

A lack of one-on-one time with parents and an inability to afford
after-school activities like sports also fuels drug use in some cases, said
Bell.

"Kids have the most expendable monies available," he added. "They are often
able to get money (by) working and one thing leads to another."

Some choose "crack," a highly-addictive, smokable form of cocaine that is
significantly more affordable than its powdered counterpart, "but the
quantity that is needed to keep going," warns Bell "is incredible."

Individuals undergoing withdrawal tend to sleep for long stretches due to
the exhaustion that follows cocaine use, yet the psychological impact is
often much worse, and often includes bouts of depression.

"When you are coming off cocaine, often people will experience suicidal
thinking, just because it is a scientific equation," he added. "What goes
up must come down. With cocaine, you go up very fast, when you come down
you come down hard and fast."

Elsewhere on the local education front is Think Clear, a program of the
county health unit that provides area schools with resources focusing on
injury prevention as it relates to alcohol and drug use.

And increasingly, one of those drugs is cocaine.

"We are absolutely hearing that it is on the rise," said project
coordinator Velma Shewfelt.

"Kids are becoming more interested in it - but that is more the scuttlebutt
on the street. It is certainly not considered one of the more popular drugs
among kids."

While alcohol and marijuana continue to attract the most attention among
area youth, the influence of cocaine cannot be discounted, thanks in large
part to its glamorous portrayal on television and in film.

Nowhere is that influence more evident than when young students mimic its
use, snorting powdery substances like Kool-Aid "because of what they are
seeing on TV."

Although cocaine is included among a range of drugs addressed within the
curriculum developed for schools, Think Clear does not offer a program
specific to its use.

"It tends not to be the first drug a kid would use," she added. "We just
don't have a cocaine-prevention program, per se."

Students 'Rhonda' and 'Sara', who admit to using the drug, tried pot and
Ecstasy first.

Sara, 18, who has university aspirations, says she is walking away from
cocaine.

"It was fun while it lasted," she said. "I've never regretted anything I do."