PARENTS ARE THE BEST ANTI-DRUG

The use of the street drug crystal methamphetamine is a growing concern in
our community. It has, according to police and addiction counsellors,
picked up where crack cocaine left off in the number of lives it has the
potential to destroy.

The drug is cheap to make and to buy and is, therefore, readily accessible
to our community's young people.

As well as being addictive - a side effect it shares with cigarettes,
alcohol and other street drugs - crystal meth can leave users suffering
life-long neurological damage.

Street drug addictions are no different that nicotine or prescription drug
abuse - except that the consequences are often more quickly evident and
more immediately threatening to the health and well-being of users.

As anyone who has ever tried to quit smoking will tell you, it would have
been better never to start than to suffer from the agonies of withdrawal.

And as anyone who has parented a teenager will tell you, you can't "make
them" do anything they don't want to do. Whether it's homework, chores or
choices of friends, teenagers don't want to listen to their parents advice.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing parents can do to help keep their
kids from using drugs. And as the story of "Amanda" illustrates, the
efforts are worth it even if the topic is uncomfortable.

Parents can start talking about drugs to their kids long before they may
think they are old enough to need that information.

And even when they have reached the communication challenged teenage years,
parents can help their kids make good choices in several ways.

First, they can make sure they always know where their kids are. It's
harder to get into a situation where drugs are available when you know your
parents might just check up on your whereabouts.

Parents can also greet their kids at the door when they come home from an
evening out and check for signs they may have been using drugs or alcohol.
Pathways has many pamphlets available to help parents recognize the signs.

But most of all, parents can be parents - not best friends or buddies - and
that means drawing boundaries for acceptable behaviour and enforcing
consequences when the rules are broken.

That's more than Amanda had. And, in fact, developing a family connection
of her own making was what has started her on the road to recovering from a
nine-year drug habit.

It's never too late when a life is at stake.