Former addicts and current police officers make strange bedfellows, but they're teaming up this week in recognition of Addiction Awareness Week ( Nov. 18 to 24 ) and a new ad campaign aimed at youth promoting the effects of addiction not just on the addicts, but society as a whole.
The Recovering Addicts Fellowship Team ( RAFT ), a support group for recovering addicts made up of recovering addicts, has partnered with the RNC to promote the Faces Of Addiction poster campaign, which is aimed at youth in Grade 8 and up.
They're also working together to hold the Addictions Awareness Week Maze, also aimed at educating youth about addictions and their consequences.
"It's a very unlikely partnership - you have your previous drug addict who has had a criminal charge now partnered up with a local law enforcement officer, going into schools talking about drugs," said RAFT member Brock Ballard.
Ballard says the education on addiction has changed from enforcement of the laws about drugs to knowledge about the effects of addiction, which he thinks is a better approach.
"The drug awareness officer of the RNC is Constable Steve Knight, and this is a new position at the RNC. He's there so they're approachable - - he's not enforcement, he's about awareness and he's going to be teaching about addictions also," said Ballard.
"A lot of it is harm reduction, things are not as black and white as they used to be in the dark ages, as I like to say. It's a lot of harm reduction, because some people are able to drink responsibly."
Though Ballard has no specific statistics on addiction and drugs for the province, he does know that the time for warnings about crystal meth coming to the province is over - the drug is already here.
"Just recently there was a seizure of ecstasy, which is very popular in high schools, but there was no ecstasy in the pills, it was 100 per cent crystal meth," he said.
"We're getting six to eight phone calls now a week on crystal meth - when we started up four years ago, nobody talked about crystal meth. So crystal meth is here but people don't realize they're using it."
Though many believe addictions are limited to gambling, drugs, and alcohol, Ballard says people can become addicted to things like their Blackberry or video games, too, and that no one is immune to the affects of addiction.
"I know a lot of people have this misconception that 'It doesn't affect me.' But we have people who have strong addictions in the community and they have to feed their addictions somehow, so they're stealing, so then prices of things go up," said Ballard. "They make the areas unsafe because this is where they're at, and they're hanging out in certain areas of town, maybe, and that makes it a little less desirable to be in."
Recovering addicts are welcome to call RAFT's 24-hour help line when they want to talk to someone who's been there, but for people who need help with their addictions, Ballard recommends talking to your doctor or calling Addiction Services ( 709-752-4919 ) instead.
"The first part of getting help for yourself is recognizing that there is a problem, and once you've recognized there is a problem you have a really good chance of helping yourself get help for it - putting it into a rest so that you're not active. Once you've been an addict to something you usually are for the rest of your life," said Ballard.
"We tend to be a place that people can call because you're dealing with people who've already done it, so they can call us."
Other events RAFT are holding for Addiction Awareness Week include the Walk for Recovery at MUN's Field House at 10:30 am on Saturday, Nov. 24, and the FIRST Concert for Recovery with Billy and the Bruisers and Siochana on Sunday, Nov. 25.
RAFT is looking at future team-ups with law enforcement, specifically a concert next summer held in conjunction with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, featuring Sixx AM, a side project of Motley Crue guitarist Nikki Sixx.
"Nikki Sixx wrote a book called [The] Heroin Diaries, and he has a band called Sixx AM, which is the soundtrack to the book, and they're doing a tour - 25 per cent of those proceeds go to the Covenant House, which he's a survivor of. Also there's a Canadian band called Three Days Grace, one of these guys . he was addicted to Oxycontin, so this album is all about recovery," said Ballard.
"We're trying to do that next summer, and that's partnered with the RCMP. Strange partnerships."
For more information about RAFT call 738-RAFT, or check out their website at http://www.raft-nf.com/default.html.
