YOUTH DRUG USE IS ON THE RISE

Forty per cent of Burnaby and New Westminster youth have used marijuana in
the past 30 days, 60 per cent have consumed alcohol and nine per cent have
used ecstasy.

Those are among the findings of a Lower Mainland youth drug use survey just
released by Surrey-based Pacific Community Resources.

The survey also shows a smaller but still significant number of local youth
having used a number of other drugs within the past 30 days: seven per cent
have tried speed, 5.6 per cent cocaine and 1.4 per cent heroin.

What's troubling for Tom Hetherington, the group's addiction services
manager, is the fact that rates of drug use appear to be on the rise for
teens across the Lower Mainland.

"That increase in drug use is true for all the drugs," he said.

A 1998 survey by the McCreary Centre Society, for instance, showed that 40
per cent of students had reported using marijuana in their life: this
survey showed a lifetime use rate of 62 per cent.

Use of each of the "harder" drugs - speed, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin -
has also gone up.

"We're seeing an increase in the number of youth at least experimenting
with these drugs," Hetherington said.

The survey used a self-reporting questionnaire to collect data from youth
aged 12 to 24. Youth were selected from public locations around the Lower
Mainland, with about 300 surveys returned from each of the six areas in the
study: Burnaby/New Westminster, Surrey, Delta, Langley/Alder-grove, Maple
Ridge/Pitt Meadows and Vancouver.

Hetherington cautions that the sample size is too small to make relevant
community-by-community comparisons.

Local numbers, however, are in line with the overall Lower Mainland average
for both drug use and age of first use.

Burnaby and New Westminster youth, on average, first tried alcohol at 12
and marijuana at 13. Speed and cocaine, meanwhile, were first tried at 15
and ecstasy at 16.

Perhaps most startling is the statistic showing the average age of first
heroin use at 13.

The survey cautions that the sample numbers included many participants who
claimed first drug use before age 10, and suggests many may not have
provided accurate information about the age they first used drugs - either
through misunderstanding, attempting to project a certain persona or
intentionally providing false data.

Even so, Hetherington said there is reason to be concerned about the young
starting age.

"I find it frightening, the age of first use," he said.

He pointed out that the younger kids start, the more likely it is they will
develop a problem with substance abuse.

Hetherington noted that many of the youth who experiment with drugs through
their teens and early 20s won't always do so.

"People start to mature out of substance use," he said, but added there
will be some for whom it remains a problem.

For alcohol, that number is about 10 per cent: for harder drugs, the
percentage is higher.

The survey also provides some suggestions as to how the issue can be addressed.

A big one is parental involvement. The survey showed that parents were the
most trusted source of drug information, but only fifth on the list of
sources of information.

"Kids believe their parents, but they for some reason are not getting
information from their parents," Hetherington said.

Hetherington suggests parents should inform themselves about drug and
alcohol use and be prepared to address their children's questions and
concerns, as young as age 11 or 12.

Hetherington would like to see all levels of government work co-operatively
to provide a "four-pillar" style approach to substance use: prevention,
intervention, harm reduction and enforcement.

On prevention, he said, all levels of government have to co-ordinate their
efforts.

The school system should provide an abstinence-based drug education program
that doesn't just tell kids not to use drugs, but explains some of the
factual information surrounding them.

"We can just say no but we should spell it with a K," he said. "Really,
it's about informed decision-making."

Finding ways to keep students in school is also critical, since the survey
showed a correlation between school attendance and substance use: those
with regular attendance were less likely to try drugs.

Important, too, is the issue of government funding.

"Our intervention and treatment system is overwhelmed at the moment," he
said, and with higher rates of use the problem will only get worse.

A complete copy of the survey is available at the Pacific Community
Resources Web site, www.pcrs.ca.