Four Courtenay service clubs donated over $3,400 to help Courtenay RCMP teach the internationally recognized Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program to 500 local Grade 5 schoolchildren. The Royal Purple of Canada Lodge 158 donated $400; the Soroptimist International Club of Courtenay, $996; the Rotary Club of Courtenay, $1,500; and the Knights of Columbus, $500. S/Sgt. Anthony Choy, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the RCMP Drug and Organized Crime Awareness Service which oversees the Courtenay DARE program, said that over 250 police officers teach DARE to thousands schoolchildren in over 90 communities throughout British Columbia. [continues 222 words]
Three Campbell River service clubs donated a total of $1,000 to help Campbell River RCMP teach the internationally recognized Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program to 200 local Grade 5 children. The Royal Canadian Legion #137 donated $500; the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie #307, $250 and the Ladies Auxiliary to the Fraternal Order of Eagles #3097 also pitched in $250. Staff Sgt. Anthony Choy, officer in charge of the RCMP Drug and Organized Crime Awareness Service overseeing the Campbell River D.A.R.E. program, said that over 250 police officers teach D.A.R.E. to thousands of school children in more than 90 communities throughout B.C. [continues 251 words]
A Rotorua 9-year-old is among the 73 students who were stood down or suspended for drug-related incidents in Rotorua schools last year. This is nearly double the national average, of 42, when compared with the same number of students. New Zealand Secondary Schools Principals' Association president and John Paul College principal Patrick Walsh said the high number of stand-downs and suspensions was a worry for the Rotorua community. "For schools, taking drugs is still one of the most serious offences a student can commit. [continues 634 words]
VCH Forum If Mark Haden set policy in our country, harm reduction would be expanded and the war on drugs declared a failure. The present system is not working, he said. Haden is clinical supervisor for Vancouver Coast Health (VCH) at the Pacific Spirit Community Health Centre, Addiction Services in Vancouver. He was at the Sechelt Indian Band Hall on June 6 at a Harm Reduction Forum hosted by VCH. Not one to back down from controversy, Haden challenged some of the common beliefs about harm reduction. [continues 800 words]
Years of debate and fine-tuning in the state legislature over allowing medical marijuana still have not settled all the questions Connecticut doctors have about medical marijuana. Is it, as some contend, a humane solution for patients who can't get relief from other medicines, or a reckless move toward something that hasn't been fully tested scientifically? The Connecticut State Medical Society, which has a membership of about 7,000 practicing and training physicians, opposed the bill. "On one hand, we're asked to be scientific and use evidence-based medicine," said Dr. Michael Krinsky, the medical society's president. "On the other hand, we're being legislated to by people who don't practice medicine, telling us this is fine to do, based on rather flimsy evidence." [continues 889 words]
Student in Area Schools Continue to Have Drug and Alcohol Prevention Message Delivered in Schools Port Alberni schools and RCMP are marking the 12th year that D.A.R.E. has been offered to area students. This year, all Grade 5 classes in the Alberni Valley received the first level of the drug prevention program, Drug Abuse Resistance Education. It is part of the RCMP'S Community Prevention Education Continuum, and is the first step to teaching youth the importance of making good, healthy choices when it comes to drugs and alcohol. [continues 654 words]
Few DARE Tell the Truth About Drugs "You ask any DEA man, he'll say, 'There's nothing we can do.'" - Glenn Frey, "Smuggler's Blues" Imagine a world where doctors were the only people who were not allowed to offer their opinions on medicine. Or where what farmers thought about agriculture was left unsaid for fear of public disapproval. That, more or less, is the situation for law enforcement officers when it comes to any real conversation about how the United States deals with the problems associated with drug abuse. The ones who know from personal, and sometimes heart-breaking, experience just how futile the whole sad enterprise is are the ones who dare not speak out for fear of being seen as soft on crime. [continues 324 words]
This year, millions of school children around the world will benefit from DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), the highly acclaimed program that gives kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs and violence. DARE was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles and has proven so successful that it is now being implemented in 75 per cent of our nation's school districts and in more than 43 countries around the world. DARE is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teaches children from kindergarten through Grade 12 how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives. [continues 820 words]
Local school officials invaded our children's privacy using police powers in their zeal to address use of marijuana like local vigilantes. And what did they find? Zip, zilch, zero, nada. The joke is on them and on their silly Keystone Kops operation. As for the rest of us citizens, are we all dead from the neck up? Where is the outrage? This terrible precedent will come back to haunt us all. Some young people want what our grandparents fought and broke the law for almost a century ago: the right to their own drug of choice, and for which we now have a liquor store on every corner. [continues 605 words]
RE: Students offered drugs on school property Educators for Sensible Drug Policy suggests that the outmoded and zero tolerance DARE program not only damages law enforcement officers credibility but exacerbates the problem by inspiring rebellion against an authoritarian legal system. EFSDP research suggests that the DARE program is not only ineffective, which is why it has been discontinued in a number of cities, but may even be harmful. Exaggerating the dangers of cannabis creates skepticism among teenagers about the real dangers of hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin, alcohol and tobacco thus encouraging experimentation and use. [continues 147 words]
The Princeton RCMP are warning people about the party-drug ecstasy after a recent rash of deaths in B.C. from overdosing. Nineteen people have died after taking ecstasy in B.C. in the last seven months. Many of the deceased, aged 14 to 37, also had PMMA in their systems. Police believe the ecstasy was laced with the stimulant during its manufacture. PMMA, or paramethoxy-methamphetamine, hasn't been found in ecstasy in B.C. previously, but traces have been spotted in people who have died from the drug in Alberta. [continues 411 words]
A couple of Harwin elementary school classes totaled 29 students, but RCMP Const. Debra Medcke turned them into 5,000. It was this pair of classes that took Medcke past the 5,000-student threshold in her career as a DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) instructor. The Prince George RCMP officer has been teaching young school kids about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse for the past seven years. Each of those years has taken her to 24 schools and about 700 students, always Grade 5. [continues 374 words]
After a three-year hiatus, a noted anti-drug and anti-violence program taught by local police officers returns to Petaluma elementary schools with strong community support. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program fell victim to budget constraints resulting in staff decreases at the Petaluma Police Department a few years ago, according to Police Chief Dan Fish. The program returns to nine Petaluma elementary schools this year thanks to donations from the Petaluma Chapter of the North Bay Association of Realtors and the McDowell Drug Task Force. [continues 564 words]
Harm reduction mechanisms, needle exchanges, safe injection sites and crack pipe delivery services for drug users funded by taxpayer dollars generate controversy and have become prominent media issues. But our public health system's harm reduction strategy goes way beyond merely focusing on substance abuse. From smoking cessation programs to safer sex campaigns, it's there to protect everybody from harm. That can be as simple as encouraging seat belt use on vehicles, convincing downhill skiers of the merits of wearing helmets to prevent head injuries, or giving women advice on how to avoid being battered by their husbands. That all-encompassing approach will be the focus of Northern Health's Humanizing Harm Reduction conference in Fort St. James, March 6 to 8. [continues 510 words]
When a student flunks out, it's time for second-guessing by parents and teachers, too. The same holds for a drug-resistance curriculum like DARE. Police officers in fifth-grade classrooms need course materials that have an impact and reinforcement from parents and the culture at large. The fact that DARE officers are being withdrawn from the fifth grade and possibly reinserted into ninth grade with an upgraded curriculum should be no reflection on the officers themselves. The course content and teaching techniques have been standardized across the nation for two decades -- if it was going to work in Flagstaff, it would have worked elsewhere, too. [continues 395 words]
The scope of a drug sale investigation at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire last week drew intense public interest. But at the end of it, the charging of only two students and recovery of less than 10 grams of marijuana revealed a problem that was entirely typical of all high schools throughout the suburbs, police and school officials said. "That kind of thing probably goes on in every high school in America," Barrington Police Chief Jerry Libit said. "We've certainly had our share of kids using pot or buying pot or selling pot. It's a horrible situation when it happens in the high school. That's why they have enhanced penalties for it and everything." [continues 616 words]
It's easier to have never smoked than to try and quit, and the same would apply for all drugs. For local SWAT (Strathmore, Wheatland Addictions Team) prevention is what they are always working towards. Crystal Wahl has been a member of SWAT since it's inception, and is also a Family School Liaison worker at Holy Cross Collegiate. She said communication is often the key when dealing with young people. "If you have any worries, why would you not start a conversation with your child?" asked Wahl. [continues 569 words]
"We have an investigative team at CTV that exposes issues that need changing. Hopefully, you watch (those stories) and you feel something. You feel angry, or sad, or incensed and, as a group of people we go, 'Wait a minute. No, this is unacceptable.' When we decide enough is enough, as a community, we can make that change happen." - - Tamara Taggart in a promotion for a CTV series, Dec. 29, 2011 Angry. Sad. Incensed. All of that and more. The pre-Christmas death of Abbotsford teen Cheryl McCormack invokes a strong response in any viewer. It begs two questions: How many more tragedies must families endure before we rise up en masse against illegal drugs and those who peddle them? [continues 689 words]
The iconic D.A.R.E. anti-drug program -- once a fixture in South Florida schools -- is becoming a relic. Fewer students in Palm Beach and Broward counties are parading the once-popular T-shirts and bumper stickers with the slogan "D.A.R.E. to keep kids off drugs." In 2011, only 2,430 students in both counties completed the 10-week course, state records show. That's a sharp drop from 2008, when 6,318 students took part. Police agencies say they don't have enough money to keep teaching the class, which aims to show kids how to handle peer pressure and avoid drugs. Rather, most schools use class time to prepare students for Florida Comprehensive Aptitude Tests, authorities say. Others claim D.A.R.E. is outdated and ineffective. [continues 703 words]
NAPLES -- The Palmetto Elementary School students bounded to the front of their fifth-grade classroom two-by-two, each coming under friendly questioning from Collier County sheriff's Cpl. Sandra Doria. Cassie Figga, wearing a D.A.R.E. T-shirt and red headband, took the situation in stride. "You're hanging out at Hollywood 20," Doria said. "After the movie, a pack of cigarettes is passed around. What do you say?" "First," Figga said, sizing up the question, "I would tell them that's not a very good idea, and then I'd go tell a manager." [continues 1246 words]
