DRUGS ALSO A WEST SIDE STORY

Susie Ruttan discovered her 15-year-old son was addicted to heroin
when she found drugs in his bedroom. Figuring out how to deal with the
addiction proved to be a lot harder.

Treatment options were scarce and informative resources few. It's one
of the reasons she and other West Side parents launched the support
group From Grief to Action several years ago. They want drug use
recognized as a health issue, and use their resources to support and
educate other parents so they can better cope.

Members of the organization will be among several speakers taking part
in a drug awareness forum at Dunbar Evangelical Lutheran Church, April
27. Open to youth and adults, it's designed to demonstrate that
crystal meth, ecstasy, cocaine and other drugs can affect any family,
regardless of income level or social background.

Ruttan suspects her son, now 22 and clean, was relieved his problem
was discovered. Although she was aware he'd experimented with
marijuana when he was younger, signs he was smoking heroin were scant.

His eyes didn't look different, his behaviour wasn't abnormal and
there were no tell-tale smells around the house. Fatigue and flu-like
symptoms were some of the only clues.

Ruttan maintains equipping youth and parents with good decision-making
skills and information about drugs is the best way to prevent addiction.

"Parents really have to be armed with knowledge," she said, noting the
organization has produced a coping kit, which offers strategies to
families struggling with addiction, along with contact numbers and
facts about various drugs and their effects.

Staff Sgt. Chuck Doucette, who heads up the RCMP's drug awareness
unit, insists being proactive about delaying or preventing first use
of illegal substances is key, pointing out the average age of
first-time use for marijuana smokers is 12.

Doucette said drug awareness programs build skills that help kids make
good decisions, decreasing the likelihood they'll experiment with
drugs or alcohol.

"If you wait till your kid is a teenager and all of a sudden say, 'Oh
gosh. I heard there's drugs out there,' it might be too late. They
might already be doing them," he said. "You've got to be talking to
eight, nine, 10 year olds about why you don't want them to use drugs
when they get older, so they start to understand that before they're
offered a drug for the first time."

So-called club drugs like ecstasy have increased the number of youths
trying out dangerous chemical mixtures. According to Doucette,
intelligence probes revealed that just a few years ago, kids didn't
realize a good portion of what they thought was ecstasy was actually a
mix of other chemicals, such as methamphetamine.

Now, not only has the percentage of methamphetamine grown, many teens
tell officers they're purposely mixing drugs to increase their
effects. "But mixing any drugs together makes both more harmful," he
said.

Crystal meth, which is to methamphetamine as crack cocaine is to
cocaine, is also becoming more popular. It's a purified form of the
drug that's smoked for the quickest effect. Users get a higher high
and become addicted more quickly.

"It's a huge mistake for parents to believe that this is a problem
that's only in the Downtown Eastside," Doucette said. "That's where
your kids are going to end up if you don't take action and make sure
they are informed about the dangers. I don't want to be alarming in
that it's still a small percentage of the kids that are into these
drugs, but what you don't want is [for] it to be one of your kids-you
don't care the percentage if it's one of your kids."

Noreen Grambo, the forum organizer, agrees that's a critical message.
"Some parents don't find out until they're called to the emergency
room or [their child] is picked up for petty crime. It's really a
crisis that we're not dealing with."

Other forum presenters include the co-directors of a residential
program for addicted youth, a youth addiction consultant from the
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and a representative from Focus on
the Family who teaches a course called How to Drug Proof Your Kids.

The forum starts at 7 p.m., April 27, at Dunbar Evangelical Lutheran
Church, 3491 West 31st Ave. (at Collingwood Street). Admission is free.