DEALING WITH DRUGS

While society's increasing acceptance of drug use is one of the main
reasons parenting has become an increasingly difficult challenge, most
youngsters are not a problem.

That was the message a panel of educators, school counsellors, police
officers and youth workers delivered to a group of roughly 140 concerned
parents attending Delta Secondary school's first drug awareness talk on
Tuesday night.

Tom Hetherington from the provincial ministry of children and family told
the audience, which included a few school-age children who had accompanied
their parents, that, "Kids are doing okay. Most kids are good kids. They
may experiment with one thing (drug) or another, but most kids are going to
be alright, and it's important that you remember that."

While that was reassuring, Hetherington added that a study by the ministry
of children and family in 1999 indicated that drugs have become
increasingly available to the point where one respondent to the study said,
"It's easier to get cocaine and heroin than order a pizza."

He added the availability of marijuana in the Lower Mainland has also
increased due to tightened security at the Canada-U.S. border crossings
after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The stricter border inspections have
backed up the marijuana supply normally smuggled to U.S. markets and sent
it to the local streets.

"Our society and culture is moving, and continues to move, towards
tolerance of marijuana use," he said. "It's now socially acceptable, and
kids have trouble thinking of it as a drugS And the use of marijuana is
associated with a whole range of high risk behaviours. So, it's an
indicator that if a kid is smoking pot that they have presumptions about
other health concerns," he said.

Continued reason for optimism though is that British Columbia has the
lowest cigarette smoking levels in Canada, a fact that may translate into
lower drug use rates since legalized drugs such as alcohol and tobacco can
act as 'gateway' drugs to other harsher drugs.

Other soothing thoughts for parents is that most people mature out of drug
use. "What I mean by that is you are 19 or 20 and out of school. You are
out of college or something, and you maybe drinking a lot of beer and
partying, but by 24 you likely have a job, kids, a wife or a husband, and
you just can't do drugs that way anymore," he said. "So, life kind of gets
in the way."

How parents deal with their child who may be exposed to drug use is one of
the most challenging aspects of parenting today because today's youngsters
seem to lack an inner compass to decide right from wrong, said Delta
Secondary vice principal Carol Becir. And that stems from a number of
factors that includes less supervision and meaningful contact with adults.

She added that studies have shown that 30 years ago adults spent 40 per
cent more time with their children than they do today. And as a result,
kids increasingly turn to peers for guidance in morality.

She added that one of the most successful tools a parent can use is model
behaviour when it comes to their own use of alcohol or drugs.

One panel member who sees the affects of drugs on youth in the school
system was Jolie Rochard, Delta Secondary's recently appointed healthy
lifestyles counsellor. She told the crowd that parents should not be afraid
to ask their children questions about their activities, stressing that,
"Checking up on your child is not an invasion of privacy."

Reinforcing that drug use is not a problem isolated to the user was Const.
Galeb Bhayani, who spent several years in the drug section of the Delta
Police department.

He said the growing incidences of marijuana grow operations in residential
neighbourhoods can lead to violence affecting innocent bystanders.

"The bad guys growing marijuana know other bad guys," he said. "So when
they want to go steal their marijuana in what is called a 'rip', they may
do a drive by shooting, kick down a back door to the house. But what if
they get the wrong house? What if they get your house because they are off
one or two digits?

"The next thing you know there's a gun battle in your neighourhood." But
the pubic can fight back if they know how to recognize some of the telltale
signs that a drug operation has set up shop in their neighbourhood, Bhayani
said.

In general, rental properties are used as a base of operations, he said.
And often they are run-down and generate high amounts of traffic, people
and vehicles, at unusual times during the day and night.

"I had one call from a resident in North Delta who said they had neighbours
who moved in the other day," he said. "They saw them back up a moving truck
to the house and unloaded a whole bunch of boxes but had no furniture." If
residents are suspicious of their neighbours, police recommend they contact
the police and do not confront the suspects.