Pubdate: Thu, 22 May 2014
Source: Prince Albert Daily Herald (CN SN)
Copyright: 2014 Prince Albert Daily Herald
Contact:  http://www.paherald.sk.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1918
Author: Tyler Clarke

GOOD TIMES WITHOUT MARIJUANA

The skunk-like odour of marijuana was not welcome on Wednesday.

Throughout the afternoon, the Prince Albert Addiction Awareness 
Committee hosted their inaugural 5/21 event at Wesmor Community High School.

"We recognize that smoking marijuana is an unhealthy way to cope, and 
we want to promote healthy coping," committee member and addictions 
counsellor Shelly Carriere said while students laughed at teachers 
plunging into the dunk tank.

A counterpoint to April 20 (4/20), which has been recognized as a day 
to smoke marijuana, May 21 (5/21) was a pot-free affair.

"As a group we just decided our city needed a little bit of awareness 
about the abuse of marijuana, so we got our students out to spread 
the message to our youth," school guidance counsellor Carol Lemire said.

"If you're using it because you're bored or anxious or grieving, you 
have to find a healthier way to deal with that.

"We just want to be constantly helping the kids make healthy life choices.

We want to make sure our kids are good community leaders in the future."

Intended to point students away from drugs, Wednesday saw students 
engage in various activities, including sumo-wrestling matches where 
one wrestler is named "Marijuana," and the other was called 
"Healthier options."

In a recent sample, the number of Prince Albert students in Grades 10 
to 12 who admitted to using marijuana in the last year was 45 per 
cent - a figure much greater than the national sample of 32.1 per cent.

About 33.5 per cent of Prince Albert's Grade 9 students admitted to 
using marijuana.

"We're just looking at promoting an alternative - promoting healthy 
choices and giving people a choice," Carriere said.

The committee hopes to keep the forward momentum of Wednesday's event 
going through the balance of the year, as well as spur 5/21 into 
becoming an annual event.

"We do rely on everybody in the community to bring forth what their 
concerns are, and our committee is open to anyone in the public who 
wants to be a part of it," she said.

"It's just a group of concerned citizens, really. Some of us are 
addictions counsellors, some of us are educators, parents, people 
that are in recovery, people who work in treatment centres."

Charged with finding and addressing problems in the community, 
Carriere said that the committee got together "to try and brainstorm 
ideas on how we can make our community healthy in relation to addiction."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom