Pubdate: Thu, 01 Dec 2005 Source: Sudbury Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2005 The Sudbury Star Contact: http://www.thesudburystar.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/608 HARD LESSONS OF YOUTH These images drop jaws and turn stomachs There's an old saying that showing someone something is far more valuable than merely telling them about it. Nothing conveys meaning like watching something unfold, touching it or experiencing it in some way. In recent years, public health officials trying to discourage youth from smoking have taken this message to heart by throwing the effects of tobacco use into the open. Statistics show that smoking leads to cancer and heart disease, but those are just numbers. Instead, images of shrivelled lungs, tarred mouths and yellowed fingers have been put in front of teenagers' faces. First-person stories of loved ones unnecessarily lost to cancer are more powerful than a bar graph or a third-person lecture. The results show promise. While smoking persists among youth, no one can argue it's because they don't understand the consequences. Thanks in part to the stark honesty of the message, the percentage of daily smokers has decreased significantly in Sudbury, from 28 per cent in 2001 to 21 per cent in 2003. This same principle is what motivates Norbert Georget, a former advanced EMT Paramedic who started The Smart Youth Power Assembly more than 20 years ago to warn kids about mixing driving and substances. Georget made a presentation this week to 1,000 Greater Sudbury students about senseless death -- what happens when people mix alcohol and drugs with driving. Statistics show that eventually, someone who habitually drives while drunk or stoned will hurt and possibly kill someone. That's terrible, skeptics will say. But kids are invincible, they're not statistics. Those horrible things happen to other people. Georget is out to dispel that misconception. He does his stark, emotionally wrenching presentations full-time now, travelling across the country showing teenagers images of the tangled, twisted and charred bodies of the victims of alcohol-of drug-induced car wrecks. These images drop jaws and turn stomachs. They are the kinds of things paramedics and cops see every day in this country, and if others saw them they would instantly reconsider drinking and driving. For this, Georget makes no apologies. Nor should he. Just last weekend, two people were charged by Greater Sudbury Police with impaired driving during a seasonal RIDE check. City police stopped 725 vehicles, while OPP officers stopped 1,124 vehicles. Greater Sudbury Police reported 44 people were given roadside tests and eight people received 12-hour driving suspensions. In the past, authorities have told us 80 per cent of highway deaths in the Sudbury area involve impaired driving, compared to the national average of 36 per cent. In 1999, 212 impaired drivers were arrested, in 2000, it was 235 and in 2001 it was 313. In Sudbury, 69 per cent of impaired driving incidents during 2001 occurred on weekends or Friday nights. Remember, it only takes one drunk driver to cause a fatality. Perhaps most ominously, two novice drivers who were pulled over last weekend were charged with having a blood alcohol level above zero. These are the drivers of tomorrow. Statistics aren't keeping them off the road and RIDE programs catch them when it's too late. Only the stark reality of the consequences seems to work. That's Georget's mission, and it's a valuable one. - --- MAP posted-by: SHeath(DPF Florida)