Pubdate: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 Source: Chilliwack Progress (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 The Chilliwack Progress Contact: http://www.theprogress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/562 Author: Katie Robinson, http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) FIVE BUCKS, FIVE MINUTES FROM A HIGH Students at A.D. Rundle middle school are just 10 minutes away from a hit of ecstasy. And students at Sardis secondary and Chilliwack Secondary aren't too far behind. Several of Chilliwack's youth head to the pedestrian tunnel at Macintosh and Edwards to score their next high, while others are getting their preferred choice of drugs from friends, acquaintances and strangers. They're getting them at parties, they're getting them from people they meet off the web, some are even getting them at school. And how much is it costing them? Five bucks a tab of ecstasy, five dollars a joint of marijuana. "It's not hard to get drugs at all," said 16-year-old Ayla White. "If you know someone who smokes pot, or you see someone smoking between classes, all you've got to do is ask them how to get it. By the end of the day, you'll have what you want or at least you'll know where to go and who to get it from." White is a straight A student at Chilliwack Secondary; she's a smart girl. But still, at 12 years old she started smoking cigarettes. drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, which later led to more hard drugs. Why? "Because I could get away with it - it was something to do," said White, who has since quit all those vices. Experimenting with "soft" drugs - cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana - is almost like a rite of passage for a lot of teens. Ever since the drug revolution of the late 1960s, adolescents everywhere have been prone to test the waters. And Chilliwack teens are no exception. But are the boundaries now being pushed too far? Is it more than just experimentation? The average age of first use in the late 1960s was between 17 and 19 years old. Now, it's clocking in at 12 and 14 years old. "Kids in Grade 8 know where to go and who to get [drugs] from," said Adel Klassen, prevention worker at A.D. Rundle and Chilliwack Middle. "To me, Grade 7, 8 and 9 students should not be able to know where to find drugs. I should not be able to ask them how long it would take to get drugs and their response is 10 minutes to a half hour - that is so scary." Research shows that the earlier a person first starts using drugs, the more likely they are to having a lifelong drug problem. In a recent school-issued survey, approximately 30 per cent of A.D. Rundle students admitted to participating in some form of drug use, mostly consisting of cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana. Sardis secondary students also listed cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana as their top three drugs of choice, followed by ecstasy and crystal meth. A survey completed by Sardis secondary students in 1996 listed minimal use of ecstasy, LSD and cocaine. Ten years later, it seems, ecstasy has become a bit more prominent. "Two years ago kids rarely asked about ecstasy, but now, I'd say about 75 per cent of the time I get asked about ecstasy in a CAPP [Career and Personal Planning] presentation," said Klassen. "Kids hear bad things about crystal meth and they know that cocaine and heroin are the hard drugs, the druggies or addicts drugs, not a kids drug. "Ecstasy seems to be the safest drug in their mind and it's easy to get. But they don't realize that there's a lot of crystal meth in ecstasy." In fact, crystal meth can be laced in just about everything. Marijuana - the once-considered "harmless" drug - is often laced with crystal meth. Popular hallucinogens like LSD and PCP are also often laced with crystal meth. "I know a lot of people who smoke weed," said 17-year-old Nadia Bronk. "But personally, I don't really know anybody who's doing meth." Last year Sardis secondary removed six of its students from the school due to on-school drug or alcohol related incidences - this year, it's removed five so far. Chilliwack Secondary has removed 25 of its students due to drug and alcohol related incidences this year, a considerably higher percentage from its average of 12 to 18 students in the past. "Do we have a problem with drugs? Every school has a problem with drugs," said CSS principal Brett Lawreson. "If one kid is doing drugs, it's a problem." But it's not just a school problem, it's a community problem. In 2002, the total cost of substance abuse to Canada's economy - according to a study released last year by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse - was $39.8 billion. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek