Pubdate: Wed, 13 Jul 2016
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2016 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.leaderpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
Author: Dawn Dumont
Page: A6

TEENS NEED TOUGH TALK ON DRUGS AND WIENERS

My nieces and nephews are getting to the age where kids experiment
with drugs and it's scary. How do you discourage them when movies and
TV make it all look so interesting and fun? Damn you to hell, Seth
Rogen!

I am especially at a loss because I've never understood drugs in the
first place. I was not a drug user for a few reasons, the first being
absolute fear. My mom did a great job of cobbling together every
terrible drug story she'd ever heard and regaling us with them as we
ate our beans and wieners at the dinner table: "This boy, he did 'The
Pot' one time and he got real high and then he put the cat in the oven
cuz he thought it was a turkey." Such stories made me fearful both of
drugs and of wieners.

The second reason was that drugs seemed to exist exclusively in the
realm of "cool" people. At my school, the cool kids stood behind the
school, in leather jackets with the sleeves cut off or jean jackets
with the sleeves cut off. In order to access drugs, I would have to
walk behind the school, where they stood, and make a deal. I could
barely order milk at lunch without stammering and that was from a nerd!

Oddly enough, I never thought about the fact that drugs are
essentially illegal and buying them is against the law. For some
reason that just doesn't enter your mind when you're a teenager. I
think maybe teens need to watch fewer Miley Cyrus videos and more
prison movies like Shawshank Redemption.

I did participate in a drug deal. Once. I was 16, driving around in a
car with some friends and my cousin Sandra. Marijuana entered the
conversation. Normally when that idea was raised, it was just as
easily dismissed because I did not know anyone who smoked pot, never
mind sold it. But there were new kids in the car and they swiftly
directed me to the town's drug dealer.

They pointed at the house and I recognized it. I said to Sandra,
"Isn't that cousin Marie's house?" She nodded. "Right, Marie. She's
the dealer." This came from one of our more knowledgeable passengers.

Marie wasn't a close family relation. She was my aunt's stepdaughter,
somewhat estranged after their marriage broke up, but still family.
Marie babysat me when I was a kid. I remembered riding on her
shoulders before she dropped me and got yelled at by my aunt (her stepmom).

Because we appeared to know Marie the best, it was suggested that
Sandra and I do the drug deal. I did not want to do it. I'm not the
most socially adept person but I figured that buying drugs from a
distant family relation would get a bit awkward. However, I also knew
that socially I was always riding the line between possibly cool and
spending the rest of my teens eating chips alone in my room while
reading romance novels. I agreed to go.

Money was handed to us and we walked up to the front door. Marie
opened the door and a big smile filled her face. She ushered us in and
sat us down. While we drank tea, she asked about our families and we
caught her up. Sandra and I kept looking at the clock - thinking about
the people sitting out in the car waiting for us. But Marie didn't
notice. She brought out a family album and then another one. We leafed
through the pictures - each of us wondering when the subject of drugs
would be brought up.

After a couple hours, Marie walked us to the door and thanked us for
coming. Just before we crossed the threshold, I stopped.

"There's one more thing ..." Sandra looked at me and I could see her
eyes begging me to keep my mouth shut, but I was determined to get
this over with: "Marie - I never blamed you for dropping me as a kid."

Marie did not remember the incident but she thanked me for my
forgiveness.

Outside, our friends were rather perturbed. In fact, two of them had
ditched us. I could understand their impatience. This was back in the
days when people didn't have fancy phones to mess around with so two
hours was more like 15 hours of hard waiting.

Unfortunately, my nieces and nephews are not growing up in a place
where the most dangerous drug available is marijuana and the town drug
dealer knows your mom.

Innocent experimentation can lead to permanent injuries and even
death. I wish the movies would talk about that once in a while.

But I guess hammering home the dangers is our job and if you want it
done right - my mom is always available for house calls.
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MAP posted-by: Matt