EDUCATION: DRUG LESSONS REQUIRED

The provincial government wants high school students to get smart about the
pitfalls of booze and drugs before they graduate.

Langley students will have to learn about drug and alcohol abuse before
they can graduate from high school, Education Minister Christy Clark
announced Thursday.

Drug and alcohol education will become a graduation requirement for B.C.
students, Clark said, an initiative she hopes to begin this September.

In an exclusive interview with reporters from Lower Mainland Publishing
(including the Langley Advance News) Clark revealed the government wants to
make alcohol and drug education a mandatory part of the Grade 10 curriculum.

The program will become a key component of the Planning 10 course. If
students don't pass it, they won't graduate, Clark said.

"It will be a whole new curriculum, and one of the core features of it will
be an education for kids about drug and alcohol substance abuse," Clark
explained.

Planning 10 was added by the Ministry this year as a graduation requirement
for students.

"So every child everywhere in British Columbia who graduates from our high
schools will have to have a core understanding of the impact of substance
abuse," Clark said, "and I think that's really timely at this part of the
year especially, given that we've seen some tragic accidents and kids are
out at grad parties, and probably some of them experimenting with substance
abuse."

The new curriculum is being created right now, for introduction this
September, although the time involved in developing it may mean it won't be
added for another year.

The Minister said she thinks schools districts aren't addressing the
problems of drug and alcohol abuse as effectively as they could.

"I think it's spotty," she said. "I think in some districts they do a lot
of it. In some districts they don't do very much of it _ there are so many
different things happening out there that there isn't really a guarantee
about what's effective and what's not."

School districts can continue to offer supplementary programming, Clark
said, such as DARE, but she wants substance abuse education "embedded in
the curriculum."

The mandatory program will be consistent throughout the province, Clark
said, and set up in a way that "we know packs the biggest punch."

"I think the time to do that is in Grade 10, when kids are starting to _
become acquainted with some of these behaviours," she said, "and I think we
can do more as a society to make sure that kids have the information _ to _
make better decisions."

Rather than a "cure-all," Clark sees it as "part of the puzzle."

Clark said she wished every child had the opportunity to see what a life of
substance abuse was like before making the decision to get involved with
drugs or alcohol.

"I wish that every kid could see what life is like for people who are drug
addicted, who live in the Downtown Eastside," Clark said.