DRUG COALITION WANTS COMMUNITY TO HELP PLAN WORKSHOPS

ST. STEPHEN - A group dedicated to finding solutions to Charlotte County
drug problems is asking for the public's help in planning a substance abuse
workshop this fall.

The Charlotte County Coalition for a Drug Free Community - a group of
social workers, health professionals, law enforcers, parents and others -
has sent out a survey asking the public to identify the topics most
important to them.

Judy Nelson, an addiction counsellor working out of the Ridgewood Addiction
Service's St. Stephen office and one of the organizers of the fall
workshop, said the coalition is asking for help because it wants to present
information people want and need.

"What do people want to know?" she said. "I don't think we know exactly
what we'll be doing for the community until we get some response. But it
will be to provide people with education in order to feel that their family
and the people that are close to them are not going to be presented with
this choice and that if they are, they'll know how to say it's not for me."

St. Stephen, like many communities in New Brunswick and beyond, has seen
drug abuse and addiction on the rise. In recent years, abuse of
prescription painkillers has increased and drugs like Dilaudid and
OxyContin have made headlines for their addictive and destructive effects.
The drugs are effective painkillers when used as prescribed but abusers are
crushing the pills and snorting or injecting them for fast, powerful highs.

But while painkillers are making news locally and nationally, Ms. Nelson
said alcohol and marijuana remain the most destructive addictions in
Charlotte County.

And there are other drugs. "Heroin is back on the streets in many places,
so I don't feel like if you get rid of OxyContin you've gotten rid of the
issue," Ms. Nelson said.

In a questionnaire for Charlotte County residents, Ms. Nelson and the
coalition are presenting a number of options for workshop topics, from
prescription drug abuse to children and addiction to Ritalin to gambling.

Ms. Nelson said response from the community will help guide the coalition,
which she said is trying to attack addiction from a positive, proactive
angle. She wants the fall workshop to go beyond an introduction of where
addicts can find help.

"Are we looking at wellness or are we looking at dealing with people who
are addicted? And we always come back to wellness," Ms. Nelson said. "We
always come back to trying to have this be the kind of community where
people aren't going to need drugs as a way to feel happy or to feel
comfortable or to feel like themselves. "But we also do not want to have
our heads in the sand."

Ideally the workshop will find a balance "to address the needs both of
people who are addicted and to provide skills for prevention," she said.

"It will be focused on more specifics around drugs. I think we've done
enough general stuff."

While it's still in the planning stage, Ms. Nelson said the workshop may be
broken down into sessions for the public and sessions for professionals -
health-care workers, abuse prevention workers and others.

For more information, or to participate in the Charlotte County Coalition
for a Drug Free Community, contact Ms. Nelson at 465-4412.

Suggestions for workshop topics may also be sent to Ms. Nelson at the
Charlotte County Hospital, 4 Garden St., St. Stephen, N.B. E3L 2L9.