DELTA KIDS LESS LIKELY TO USE DRUGS: NEW SURVEY

A survey of youth drug use in the Lower Mainland has found Delta has the
lowest rate of drug use among 12 to 24-year-olds of six communities surveyed.

The review by Pacific Community Resources also found youth in Delta had the
hardest time obtaining drugs, especially hard drugs like cocaine, heroin,
methamphetamine and speed.

Results of the study were presented to Delta council Monday by youth drug
prevention worker Cynthia Voo, who said the difference is likely because
Ladner and Tsawwassen in South Delta are, effectively, "rural" communities
surrounded by farmland, which impedes the flow of drugs in and out.

Voo also cautioned the survey findings may be skewed because a higher
percentage of the 305 interviewed in Delta were attending school regularly
compared to the samples in other communities.

In all, 1,926 young people were surveyed for the study conducted late last
year in Delta, Surrey, Burnaby/New Westminster, Langley/Aldergrove,
Vancouver, and Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows by Pacific Community Resources, a
non-profit society that provides education, housing, employment, counseling
and addiction services to children, youth and families.

The results show a lower percentage of Delta teens and young adults use
drugs compared to their counterparts in other communities -- for example,
two per cent of Delta youth reported using cocaine compared to 15 per cent
in Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows -- which reported the highest usage rate..

Delta was lowest in every category of drug use except heroin, where one
community - Burnaby/New Westminster -- reported a youth usage rate of 1.4
per cent, compared to Delta, second lowest with two per cent, and in Maple
Ridge/Pitt Meadows - highest at 6.4 per cent.

Overall, the study found more young people are using drugs at an
increasingly younger age.

"Alcohol is typically the first drug used with an average first age use of
12 years," the study concluded.

"This is followed by marijuana at 13, heroin at 14, methamphetamine (speed,
crystal meth), cocaine and ecstasy at 15 years."

Boys are more likely than girls to try illegal drugs while girls are more
likely than boys to abuse alcohol, the study found.

The study calls for beefed-up treatment and prevention programs,
concentrating on grades 6, 7 and 8, with emphasis on drinking by young
girls. (See comparison tables in Leader, May 9, 2003, page 6)