Pubdate: Mon, 05 Mar 2007
Source: Aurora, The (CN NF)
Copyright: 2007 The Aurora
Contact:  http://www.theaurora.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3219
Author: Cpl. Keith MacKinnon
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

The Drug Deal

PEER PRESSURE: THE GATEWAY TO DANGER

Here's the test. You're with a group of friends and one of them pulls 
out a baggie with some unknown substance in it and promptly informs 
you that it's the cool thing to do and says (here's the classic), 
"Everyone does it." Now try the same scenario, but with a bottle of 
liquor. What do you do?

I ask high school students during presentations the question, "Are 
you going to jump off a cliff because your friends say it's OK? So 
why use drugs?"

Around 85 per cent of high school students don't use drugs and those 
that do were most likely convinced to do so by friends. The 
interesting thing is that those same friends usually don't have a 
clue about the drug nor do they have the slightest inkling about the 
health risks.

I have had to send a child off to the Janeway Poison Control Centre 
from chugging hard liquor, take drunken youth home to mom and dad, 
etc., the stories go on. Kids out late drinking, going to parties 
parents thought were harmless; the list of situations in which I have 
attended where trouble has occurred is long.

In most cases, the parents were appalled by their child's behavior. 
Funny, I have never had to take a child into custody that was home 
playing scrabble. It is when young people get in situations where the 
parental guidance is missing that the bad decisions can creep in. Do 
they have to? No.

If they are encouraged to stand up for themselves and given a firm 
moral foundation to stand on, they will make the right decisions. You 
cannot and will not be able to be there all the time. So prepare them 
for those challenges.

It's like an investment. The more you put into it now, the more it 
will yield later. Talk, talk and talk some more. Talk about school, 
aspirations, likes and dislikes. Encourage and reinforce good 
behavior, discourage and discipline bad behavior. The closer you bond 
with your child, the less likely they will be to betray your trust 
when the crunch is on.

You have to let your child come to their own realization that the 
group of friends they have might not be what is good for them if they 
fit into the dope smoking/binge-drinking crowd. To be completely 
fair, there are those rebellious teens that just won't listen despite 
the best intentions of the parents. Keep trying; it's worth the 
effort. You have to emphasize goal setting that comes from them, not you.

One thing that will not change is the peer pressure that teens 
encounter every day. By nature, youth of all ages desire to be 
popular, to be seen by their classmates as "cool". No one wants to be 
labeled as a geek or to be singled out.

In this situation, kids will sometimes marginalize their efforts to 
fit in when their potential is much higher than they are willing to 
show. There will always be cliques of students that other students 
want to be part of. Of course, students with like interests and focus 
will naturally gravitate together, and that's healthy.Unfortunately, 
that applies to those students that think it's fine to be out every 
weekend smoking dope and getting hammered.

People who become addicted to drugs of any type do so for a variety 
of reasons. Treatment of the addiction should examine a variety of 
factors including environment, family, personal experience and peers. 
Any one or combination of these factors can come into play.

Now to answer my first question at the start of the column, what do 
you do when a situation like this confronts you?

Why not say, "No thanks, smoking causes emphysema and I like my lungs 
the way they are", or "I'm not feeling so great right now, I got to 
go". How about, "Hey buddy, are you crazy? It will look real sweet if 
the cops roll in here and everybody gets charged; forget it." You can 
keep it simple and spare the lecture and say, "No thanks".

There are a million reasons for backing away and breaking from the 
herd. You have to ask yourself what kind of friend would further 
pressure you at that point. Not a friend that respects you. Don't 
give in, say no to drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman