LOSING THE WAR ON DRUGS

I found life in Red Deer rather sad when I returned this week to work from
holidays.

This city, like every other community in the country - whatever its size -
has lost the war against drugs.

One young man died this week and two other people are in hospital,
apparently following illicit drug use.

I believe - although I've certainly heard less sympathetic views - it's
tragic that 25-year-old Greg Walls came to Alberta from Ontario with a dream
to work in the booming oilpatch and apparently died on a drug bender.

In the end, he apparently chose the low road and succumbed to a lethal dose
of drugs.

We don't know what drugs he took for that final high. It may have been
ecstasy, a designer drug that police see increasingly.

Toxicology reports and a fatality inquiry will tell us eventually whether
Walls was doing one drug or a cocktail of the various street drugs readily
available in Red Deer such as cocaine, heroin or horse tranquilizer.

This week an anecdote was relayed to me that kind of says it all about
drugs.

An angry father arrived at a local facility in Red Deer frequented by young
people to retrieve his young son, who obviously did not have permission to
be there.

The father placed his son in his vehicle and went back to the facility and
told another adult there that this was no place for youngsters since drugs
were probably used there.

The other adult replied that the facility shouldn't be blamed, since drugs
are available on almost every street corner in the city.

Red Deer is no different than anywhere else, and for certain elements to
label this city as the drug capital of Alberta is silly.

What all of this does, though, is to sharpen our view on a problem that
exists everywhere.

And maybe it's time to change the way we do battle with illegal drugs.

First, keep in mind that there will always be illegal drugs available.

Today it may be ecstasy (cut with additives such as rat poison) or Special K
(horse tranquilizer). Police will continue to bust offenders and maybe even
one day clean up current drugs like they did when the use of LSD 30 years
ago eventually slowed down.

But tomorrow it may be ya ba - a new, more powerful form of methamphetamine,
stronger than ecstasy, now finding its way into the western U.S.

If only it were as easy as decriminalizing simple possession of marijuana to
win the war against society's relentless goal to get high.

But it's not.

There are only two ways to keep illegal drugs, and non-prescribed use of
prescription drugs, off our streets.

One is to get at the source and the other is education.

When the kingpins behind illegal drug production, sale and distribution are
locked up, and when society no longer needs a drug-induced high, the battle
may end.

But in a world where alcohol and prescription drugs are constantly abused,
we see how difficult and huge the problem is.

We have to always remember that the most prominent factor behind the sale
and distribution of many street drugs is organized crime.

To focus on the many small pawns who peddle drugs on our streets is throwing
good money away.

There are so many great highs out there - like catching a fish on a fly rod,
like this weekend's mini "eco-challenge" involving biking, paddling and
hiking, like sitting around the campfire telling ghost stories, like
listening to Golden Oldies, like watching your kids grow up, like playing
with your dogs . . . you get the picture.

Yet a lot of people would prefer to get zombied on drugs and booze.

Why? Getting high is part of the human condition. How we do it is vital.

All work and no play are not healthy. But teaching "play" is as important as
teaching math.

If we teach our children that there are healthy highs in life, then
hopefully, after they get through the experimental stage, they will choose a
healthy lifestyle.

If not, then there's this to consider:

There are certain specifics we place onus on in our society when it comes to
teaching our children to be safe about such things as handling weapons,
driving, boating, playing with fire.

Yet when it comes to illegal drugs, we just tell them to say no. It's not
enough.

Given the common use of illegal drugs today, it's likely that most youths
will encounter them. At the very least, we can arm them with more
information.

It's not too radical to go one step further and teach: "But if you don't say
no, here's how to be safe about it, or here's how to recognize a potentially
lethal overdose."

In the U.S., a great deal of money is spent on law enforcement, courts and
prison losing the war on drugs.

In fact, in the U.S., 90 per cent of drug-related arrests are for possession
only. One U.S. senator, Gary Johnson of New Mexico, says illegal drug use is
a health problem, not a criminal justice problem.

Perhaps he's right. If people comprehend they are jeopardizing their health
as we saw so clearly this week in Red Deer, perhaps illegal drug use would
slow and a lot of the big-time players would be out of business.

Courts can get tougher, but as we've seen, the experiment in the U.S. has
not solved the problem.

We should focus on convincing our children, and ourselves, that taking the
low road to unnatural highs does lead to death.