Students at C.C. Loughlin Elementary School will be better prepared to make the right decisions about drugs and alcohol following their completion of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program. Seventy-six Grade 6 students at C.C. Loughlin were the first in the school district to graduate from this program. DARE is a collaborative effort between police and educators. DARE teaches kids how to recognize and resist the direct and subtle pressures that influence them to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other drugs. The DARE program is usually introduced to children in the 5th or 6th grade. Sgt. Paul Murphy, who was specially trained, went into C.C. Loughlin one day a week for 17 weeks to teach the children. [continues 355 words]
Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Sgt. Paul Murphy spoke to students Wednesday about what young people face when trying to make the right decisions about drug, alcohol and cigarette use. Sgt. Murphy visited the Grade 6 class at St. Gerald's Elementary School as part of their Education Week activities. "There is a big problem with drugs, so that's why we talk to kids in Grade 6," he said. "Peer pressure is most prevalent in junior high schools ? G.C. Rowe and Presentation, anywhere you go. It is the same anywhere you go." [continues 399 words]
A Senate committee recommendation that smoking marijuana should be legal for people over 16 years old has drawn an unfavourable response in this area. The recommendation, which received full support by the Senate committee, goes beyond decriminalization or even the kind of tolerance in such cannabis-friendly jurisdictions as the Netherlands. Constable Shawn O' Reilly, president of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Association, said he's outraged by the recommendation. To make such a conclusion shows that the committee is ignoring scientific evidence about the dangerous effects of marijuana use, he said. [continues 709 words]
