Pubdate: Mon, 05 Mar 2007
Source: Labradorian, The (CN NF)
Copyright: 2007 The Labradorian
Contact:  http://www.thelabradorian.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3565
Author: Corporal Keith MacKinnon
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

PEER PRESSURE: THE GATEWAY TO DANGER

The Drug Deal

Here's the test. You're with a group of friends and one of them pulls 
out a baggie with some unknown substance in it and promptly informs 
you that it's the cool thing to do and says (here's the classic) 
"Everyone does it." Now try the same scenario but with a bottle of liquor.

What do you do?

I ask high school students during presentations the question, "Are 
you going to jump off a cliff because your friends say it's O.K.?" So 
why use drugs?

Around 85 per cent of high school students don't use drugs and those 
that do were most likely convinced to do so by friends. The 
interesting thing is that those same friends usually don't have a 
clue about the drug nor do they have the slightest inkling about the 
health risks.

I have had to send a child off to the Janeway poison control center 
from chugging hard liquor, take drunken youth home to mom and dad, 
etc., the stories go on an on.

Kids out late drinking, going to parties parents thought were 
harmless; the list of situations in which I have attended where 
trouble has occurred is long. In most cases, the parents were 
appalled by their child's behavior.

Funny, I have never had to take a child into custody that was home 
playing scrabble.

It's when young people get in situations where the parental guidance 
is missing that the bad decisions can creep in. Do they have to?

The answer quite simply is no.

If they are encouraged to stand up for themselves and given a firm 
moral foundation to stand on, they will make the right decisions.

You cannot and will not be able to be there all the time. So prepare 
them for those challenges. It's like an investment. The more you put 
into it now, the more it will yield later.

Talk, talk and talk some more. Talk about school, aspirations, likes 
and dislikes. Encourage and reinforce good behavior, discourage and 
discipline bad behavior. The closer you bond with your child, the 
less likely they will be to betray your trust when the crunch is on.

You have to let your child come to their own realization that the 
group of friends they have might not be what is good for them if they 
fit into the dope smoking/binge drinking crowd.

To be completely fair, there are those rebellious teens that just 
won't listen despite the best intentions of the parents. Keep trying; 
it's worth the effort. You have to emphasize goal setting that comes 
from them, not you.

One thing that will not change is the peer pressure that teens 
encounter every day. By nature, youth of all ages desire to be 
popular, to be seen by their classmates as "cool." No one wants to be 
labeled as a geek or to be singled out.

In this situation, kids will sometimes marginalize their efforts to 
fit in when their potential is much higher than they are willing to 
show. There will always be cliques of students that other students 
want to be part of. Of course, students with like interests and focus 
will naturally gravitate together, and that's healthy. Unfortunately, 
that applies to those students that think it's fine to be out every 
weekend smoking dope and getting hammered.

People who become addicted to drugs of any type do so for a variety 
of reasons. Treatment of the addiction should examine a variety of 
factors including environment, family, personal experience and 
peers.Any one or combination of these factors can come into play.

Now to answer my first question at the start of the column, what do 
you do when a situation like this confronts you?

Why not say, "No thanks, smoking causes emphysema and I like my lungs 
the way they are", or "I'm not feeling so great right now, I got to 
go." How about, "Hey buddy, are you crazy? It will look real sweet if 
the cops roll in here and everybody gets charged... forget it!" You 
can keep it simple and spare the lecture and say, "No thanks."

There are a million reasons for backing away and breaking from the 
herd. You have to ask yourself what kind of friend would further 
pressure you at that point. Not a friend that respects you, that's 
for certain. Don't give in, say no to drugs.

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Cpl. Keith MacKINNON is Labrador District Drug Awareness Coordinator
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman