Pubdate: Thu, 12 Apr 2007
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Calvin White
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Note: Calvin White has an M.Ed in counselling psychology and worked 
for 18 years as a high school counsellor.

TRUTH TO TEENS

Kids Tune Out Adults' Messages About Booze And Drugs; But They'll 
Listen To A Real Life Story From One Of Their Own

While there's lots of talk about the growing divide between the rich 
and the poor, I wonder if enough attention is paid to the divide 
between children and adults, especially teens and adults.

Case in point is the current mission of provincial governments to 
"educate" about and "combat" the threat from methamphetamine -- 
a.k.a. crystal meth. Special funds are set aside to deliver sundry 
programs and initiatives "designed" to reach kids.

The problem is that they almost always don't. And that's often 
because they are driven from an adult perspective.

I've been to countless motivational, anti-drunk driving, and other 
message assemblies in high schools. If they're entertaining enough 
they make an impact that lasts until the end of the day.

The glitch is they're organized and done by adults, they're intended 
to manipulate one way or the other and thus are transparent, and 
don't resonate in any deep way with the kids. They tend to be another 
exercise in which the authorities try to get through to the kids what 
the authorities want. Kids instinctively recognize that and their 
natural, developmental resistance goes up, even if only on the 
unconscious level.

Kids need to rebel, they need to establish their own sense of self -- 
independent from their parents and adults. Kids need to take risks, 
to let loose. At the same time, they need to belong, to fit in. It's 
a troublesome combination when a society has become predatory.

Companies routinely target kids as consumers. They design campaigns 
to get them to buy fashions, products, gadgets, lifestyles. They see 
it as their right to cultivate tastes and desires to enhance sales 
now and in the future. So too the illicit drug business. Addiction to 
drugs is essential to maximum profits.

Of course, kids don't get that. They don't realize that they are 
being so ruthlessly used and shaped.

So, how do we counter the threat from drugs -- particularly from 
methamphetamine (and its prevalence in ecstasy), which actually does 
seriously threaten the well-being of our kids? One recent student 
assembly that I attended, and which did resonate, featured a lone 
speaker in a wheelchair. He wore his baseball cap backwards, spoke 
like a teenager, including a bit of swearing, and seemed much younger 
than his 26 years. His was a message about drinking and driving, yet 
what was unique about it was that he was all for drinking. He came 
across as one of them.

So, for over an hour he drew in the audience of 400 by engaging them 
with his story. It was a story they could all relate to and it was 
not a lesson. Instead of teaching, he was giving the inside scoop, 
info he had gleaned while going where they go.

This is precisely the model that will have maximum effect in the 
quest to influence kids about crystal meth. Instead of relying on 
catchy titles or slogans, carefully crafted videos, or a 
preponderance of medical facts, we need to get real kids in front of 
real kids. Each province should be cultivating and recruiting young 
people who are recovering methamphetamine addicts to be frontline speakers.

These kids are the ones to tell their stories to the masses of 
teenagers who are blissfully insulated with their feelings of 
immortality and no tomorrow. They need to recount how the substance 
has damaged them, the hallucinations, the depression, the volatility, 
the pain. They need to tell how that never happened with pot or mushrooms.

Thus, there is no intent to lecture about "drugs" -- let that fall to 
parents. There is only the intent to tell a real life story. Let the 
speakers talk the way they normally do, bad language and all.

Nothing influences us more quickly and lastingly than getting 
first-hand information from someone we trust and relate to. Needing 
to get the car fixed, we go to a mechanic that someone we know 
vouches for. Doing some travelling? We choose the hotel, restaurant, 
travel agent that someone we know has good experience with. Hiking? 
Don't go along that path, there's a bear up there.

Most of us appreciate and heed such inside information. Kids need 
inside information. But from those who have been there, not outside 
information from someone in a uniform, someone in a suit, or someone 
who is not where they are at.

They need to hear from recovered dealers how teens are targeted and 
sucked in. How ecstasy is routinely laced so as to increase 
addictivity. They need to hear in their own language how messed up 
someone got and still is from using methamphetamine.

Of course, there is a risk in this. The kids who listened to the 
fellow in the wheelchair certainly won't think twice about getting 
bombed on the weekend. They'll still party hard just as he did.

But many of them, some for sure, will choose not to drive afterwards 
or get in someone's car who has been partying hard with them.

They'll remember how his friend was killed and how he used to 
snowboard every winter and skateboard every summer. They'll remember 
how small and alone he seemed in his wheelchair.

They'll remember this because when they looked at him and listened to 
him they only saw themselves.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman