ROYAL SCARE TACTICS UNLIKELY TO WORK, ACCORDING TO TEENS

But Experts Say Harry's Trip To Rehab A Good First Step

Prince Charles was praised in Britain for sending his son Prince Harry, who
had sampled marijuana, to a rehabilitation centre to see how drug-addicted
teens live.

But while parents play a huge role in setting young people straight,
preventing or halting drug use doesn't need to involve scare tactics, say
counsellors, researchers and kids here.

A CNN Internet poll asked users if Harry should have been sent to a drug
clinic for admitting to cannabis use. More than two-thirds of about 24,000
voters said no.

Teens themselves say it's normal to experiment.

Nicki Bahrampour, 18, feels it would take more than shock treatment to get
the danger message across.

"Doing something like that would act as shock treatment for a while, but it
wouldn't necessarily stop you from doing drugs or drinking," says
Bahrampour, a Grade 13 student at Western Technical Commercial School.

"If my father did what Prince Charles did to me, I'd say he'd be
overreacting," adds Bahrampour. "He should understand teens need to
experience things to know about them. I'd rather he sit down and say to me
that's a stupid thing and what would make you do such a stupid thing.

"That would make me feel more comfortable and show me my father was there
for me."

Dr. Karen Leslie, a pediatrician in the substance abuse program at The
Hospital for Sick Children, warns there's no proof scare tactics work in
changing long-term behaviour.

"I'm not so sure we'll be able to prevent teens from trying drugs; they're
there, and it's a socially accepted phenomenon and a passage to adulthood,"
she says.

But at least Charles took charge as a parent, she says.

"He identified a problem and took it seriously and addressed it with his
son, and that's better than just saying lots of kids do it (take drugs)."

A survey of Canadian teens in each of three years -- 1984, 1992 and 2000 --
suggests drinking levels remained virtually unchanged, with 78 per cent of
those surveyed two years ago into regular or occasional drinking.

However, more than twice as many teens were smoking pot in 2000 -- 37 per
cent compared to 16 per cent in 1984, Reg Bibby, a sociologist at the
University of Lethbridge in Alberta, reports in his book Canada's Teens:
Today, Yesterday and Tomorrow.

Naomi Lightman, 16, can vouch for the increased availability of drugs and
alcohol.

She says she's not into them, but many of her friends are. They get
marijuana easily, many bars serve them alcohol, and they get away without
being asked for identification at liquor stores.

"Seeing exactly what happens when you use drugs would seem more effective
than just reading about it in a book or pamphlet," says the Grade 11
student at Northern Secondary School.

Parents need to tread carefully because teens' delicate systems make them
more vulnerable than adults to becoming addicted, says Hamish White of
Recovery Counselling Services in Toronto.

"A great majority" of teens try drugs, with 20 to 25 per cent of them
developing a problem, he adds, noting that marijuana can stay in a teen's
system for a month.

"It's an adolescent's job to experiment," says White. "Most kids try (drugs
and alcohol) for fun and curiosity, and I think they feel it's expected of
them. But continued use over and over again isn't experimenting."

White says drug use can go from the experimenting "I like to use" stage, to
the dependent "I need to use" stage. Kids who've never used substances or
who do it for fun are more likely to heed warnings from young people whose
lives have been affected by them, he adds. Addicted teens commonly need
counselling, peer and parental support and medical help.

"If Harry is in the 'I like to use' stage, then (Charles) fundamentally did
the right thing" having him speak to problem teens, says White.

"He didn't look at (Harry's drug use) as a rite of passage or a 'boys will
be boys' sort of thing. He treated it seriously and he acted on it. I think
now he has to keep a close watch on him."