Pubdate: Sun, 05 Feb 2012
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2012 The Calgary Sun
Contact: http://www.calgarysun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.calgarysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Nadia Moharib

KIDS AREN'T ALRIGHT

Calgary's top cop says parents shouldn't delay until their child has
drugs in their pockets to talk to them about the perils of drug use.

Instead, starting when they are as young as seven or eight years old
they can better prepare youngsters for the inevitable introduction
into a world where curiosity, peer pressure and drug-dealers posing as
pals can lure them if they aren't taught to avoid the hook.

Chief Rick Hanson says now is the time "for parents to become
parents," and arm children with the means to make good decisions.

"Kids have all kinds of friends, but they only have one or two
parents," he says.

"People have to stand up and teach them the dangers, not when they are
in high school and find a bag of weed in their pocket. It starts much
earlier than that ... kids have to be taught that is the world out
there and how to say `no.' "

Abbotsford police Const. Ian MacDonald agrees.

Sometimes, he says, "it's a conversation and sometimes a
confrontation," but parents can't be naive to think kids won't be
tempted by drugs.

The days of someone older, wiser and perhaps in uniform simply
insisting they "say no to drugs," are over, instead children should be
given the information they need to make better choices - teaching,
rather than preaching.

"Finger wagging doesn't work," he says.

"You have to give people information and hope they make the right
decisions."

RCMP Cpl. Mike Polegi with the Edmonton drug section worked with youth
in Saskatchewan who were given alternative measures for possessing
small quantities of drugs several years ago.

Often drugs were bought and sold in lunch-hour exchanges between
children and high-school students and drop-outs in parking lots.

He said it was disappointing to see some parents play down the dangers
posed by what kids believe to be soft dope, such as pot and even
ecstasy.

"I had more than one parent put their hand up and say, `Excuse me,
isn't this just like marijuana?' he says.

He says "it's not just like marijuana" and what people knew years ago
is very different and less powerful than what's available today.

Many officials say the `it-won't-happen-to-me' attitude, or false
sense of security some feel by knowing their dealer, are just plain
dangerous ways of thinking, as the recent casualties underscore.

Rather than being regulated, conscientious drug manufacturers,
suppliers are criminals in business to make money - chemistry
experiments often tried by guinea pigs who take the risk when they
dare to take a hit.
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MAP posted-by: Matt