Pubdate: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 Source: Penticton Western (CN BC) Copyright: 2006 Penticton Western Contact: http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1310 WAR ON DRUGS MORE THAN SINGLE BATTLE Recent arrests and seizures remind us once again of the criminal underground economy that supplies illicit drugs to residents up and down the Okanagan Valley. While the number of individuals arrested and the amount of drugs and other items seized sounds impressive, it remains uncertain whether this will have any impact on the supply of illicit drugs that circulate through the region. Illicit drugs will continue to exact a heavy toll on Penticton and other communities for some time and anybody who believes that a single measure could fix the many ills connected to the drug issue is delusional. The scourge of illicit drugs demands a number of remedies that include decriminalization of some drugs, rehabilitation, enforcement and education that aim to reduce demand by increasing awareness about the harmful effects of illicit drugs. Policy-makers are certainly becoming more interested in reducing demand of illicit drugs. Note the recent provincial announcement aimed at reducing crystal meth use among young people, the group for whom the consequences of addication could be the worst. It is certainly a step in the right direction. The long- and short-term effects of crystal meth, which can be produced so easily, are devastating. Anybody familiar with the effects of the drug can share stories that will leave you shaking and any steps underway now to reduce the supply and the demand of crystal meth are only first ones. But we would also like to remind policy-makers that crystal meth is only one of many drugs affecting young people. Alcohol and tobacco remain the most abused drugs among high school students. That is - albeit in a cold way - comforting. It means that arguably more harmful drugs remain for now at the periphery of the student population. But this is hardly a reason to feel smug. British Columbia, according to the Canadian Cancer Society, now appears to be doing less to reduce the number of smokers than it did several years ago. This reversal should give everybody pause. Binge drinking also remains a concern, despite some significant efforts to reduce it among youth, especially teenagers. Some of it is perhaps unavoidable. Young people wish to test their boundaries and excessive alcohol consumption is part of that experimentation. We are not suggesting tougher measures to restrict access to alcohol. This would likely have unintended consequences. Instead, we would like to see measures that give youth and students the skills to recognize the harmful effects of alcohol and tobacco and discuss them in a mature way. We would also like governments to recognize the intellectual hypocrisy that is at the heart of legal alcohol and tobacco sales. Taxes on their sale put a lot of money in public coffers and help fund - - wait for it - health care programs to treat and prevent alcoholism and smoking addiction. We recognize the inherent economical and ethical dilemmas which elected leaders in regulating the sale and distribution of alcohol and tobacco. But it is time that we have a serious discussion about these issues which effect the vast majority of the general public. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin