Pubdate: Wed, 22 Nov 2006 Source: Tri-City News (Port Coquitlam, CN BC) paper=74&cat=48&id=777052&more Copyright: 2006 Tri-City News Contact: http://www.tricitynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1239 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?135 (Drug Education) LET'S TALK DRUGS Teen drug and alcohol use is a fact of life in every community. Most of it is experimental; rarely does it lead to addiction. It's not a crisis but it shouldn't be ignored either, judging by the latest McCreary teen health survey. In 2003, kids aged 13 to 18 filled out a survey and one in five said they had tried marijuana and more than half said they had used alcohol. These are not surprising statistics but they should make parents take notice. Parents, their own lack of confidence notwithstanding, are the best preventers. They are their child's first teachers and are the role models most copied by young people. Yet many probably don't know how to talk to their kids about the issue and most don't realize that simply conversing at sensitive times in their kids' lives, and possibly role-playing responses to hypothetical scenarios, will do more than any scary lecture in PE class. Parents don't have to be the experts either, they only need to raise the topic and know where to go for extra resources. Schools are often a great help in providing materials and talking points for parents, many of whom can use their own experiences in explaining the downsides of experimenting at a young age. Drugs are now more potent, more accessible and contain more impurities than ever before. Alcohol poisoning and driving while drunk are very real, yet extremely dangerous, possibilities. New studies claim even marijuana has connections to psychosis and, at the very least, can impair teens at a point when their brains are at a critical development stage. Schools can't do it alone. Parents need to connect with their kids and be prepared to be a sounding board, a consistent role model and a partner in a journey of inquiry. That said, there is a role for school trustees, as well, in making sure students are allowed to participate in the McCreary study. As the third largest district in the province, Tri-City students must be allowed to provide their views and information on their behaviour for this study on youth health habits to be credible. Everybody needs information to make sound decisions and youth, parents, educators, health officials and prevention workers are no exception. - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl