The college released on Wednesday a study called Avoiding Abuse, Achieving a Balance, which includes 31 recommendations that call on health-care professionals, educators, law enforcement and government to work together to curtail the illicit use of opioids.

According to the college, Canada is the world's third largest per capita consumer of opioids. The report cites that misuse accounts for an "increasing number of deaths, alarming rates of addiction and devastating consequences in our communities."

But if that family member is an addict and they’re under the age of 18, it’s either a reality or perhaps something you’re hoping for. At least, that was the case with my family.

Right now, the resources for youth drug abusers and their families in Manitoba is pretty dismal. Although Marymound operates a five-bed youth drug stabilization unit, there is currently no detox centre for specifically for youth in Manitoba.

At Marymound, the youth sees a slew of doctors and counsellor, going through a condensed drug education program. After they complete this process, the centre can no longer hold them and they are released. The maximum time they are able to hold them is a paltry four days. My family is familiar with this program, and granted, we were referred to counsellor from the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, and various doctors and psychiatrists, but the wait list to see a counsellor, particularly for family counseling, was very long and the process of getting our family member help outside of Marymound was generally both tedious and intimidating.

So we were basically left on our own, only to watch the person we loved slip back into the same destructive habits. It was only after being arrested, after which they were put on probation and had to adhere to a strict curfew, that we felt at least some progress was made. Now we would at least know where they were at 4 a.m.

It will probably be a while before a detox centre for youth is opened in this province and progress on this issue is being made, but what can be done right now is people can start talking about it. Drug addiction is seen as a problem that affects people at the bottom of the rung. It’s the junkie on north Main that you drive by at two in the morning, not the kid who lives in Whyte Ridge.

At age 17, sitting in the basement with friends smoking pot, Don Corbeil first noticed all the cameras spying on him. Then he became convinced a radioactive chip had been planted in his head. “I thought I was being monitored like a lab rat,” he explains.

It never occurred to him that marijuana could be messing with his brain. Corbeil had been smoking pot since he was 14, a habit that escalated to about 10 joints a day.

He started hearing voices and, at one point, Corbeil thought he was the Messiah. Police found him one day talking incoherently, and brought him to hospital, where he was eventually diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis.

Corbeil had dabbled in other drugs, such as acid and ecstasy. But marijuana was his mainstay.

The message was that they, too, must be extra vigilant in the effort to protect their children against the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

Students from Anita Piercey's and Margaret Ann Cleal's two Grade 6 classes were rewarded June 14 for the successful completion of the DARE - 'Drug Abuse Resistance Education' - program, instructed by Cst. Mike Martel of the RCMP's Burin Customs and Excise Section, with certificates and a party at the school.

In addressing the group, Cpl. Geoff Greene, also of the Burin Customs and Excise Section and a former DARE officer at the school, suggested parents need only take a walk through a nearby area known as 'The Pit', frequented by students at neighbouring Pearce Junior High during breaks, and take a look around the grounds to see what's going on.

"It'll be a big eye opener for some of you."

According to Cpl. Greene, some youth are experimenting with prescription drugs they find at home, searching medicine cabinets for pills, researching their effects on the Internet and popping them at school.

Twenty-five students participated as peer leaders in a program called Challenges, Beliefs and Changes ( CBC ).

The pilot program, led by TDHS principal Pam Dobbs, Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit nurse Stephanie Hillman and Chatham-Kent Police Special Const. Charlene Mitchell, trains student volunteers to discuss issues of substance use with their younger peers in grades 8 and 9.

A ceremony was held at the high school on Thursday to honour and thank the peer leaders for their work.

As a show of appreciation and congratulations, Chatham-Kent Police Chief Dennis Poole presented the students with certificates.

"You will make a difference in the lives of other people, and we're very proud of you and of the work you have done," Poole said.

Researchers say the results also suggest that among those likely to develop the disease, those who use marijuana may get the disease earlier in life than those who don't.

The findings don't prove that smoking marijuana causes schizophrenia, and the study only looked at people who already had the disease. But, "smoking marijuana may have hastened whatever process was going to happen anyway," Daniel Foti, a PhD student at Stony Brook University on New York's Long Island and the lead author on the study, told Reuters Health.

Symptoms such as blood pressure problems, stroke, and hallucinations, are not the only thing Cocaine users must worry about; they must also be concerned with rotting flesh.

In a publication of Annals of Internal Medicine, doctors discussed two cases of women with a history of Cocaine abuse who both suffered symptoms consisting of purple lesions on the face, ears, legs, and other parts of the body.

Doctors claimed that these symptoms are common for toxicity with Levamisole, an approved anti-worming agent used for veterinary purposes typically used to treat cattle, sheep and pigs. The substance was once used to treat autoimmune diseases, kidney disorders, and cancer in humans in the U.S. but since has been banned for its side effects.

These effects, doctors claim, are being seen in Cocaine users, ranging from a variety of symptoms. The least serious being skin lesions, which are easily treatable and go away in time The most serious side effect being Agranulocytosis, a disease that effects white blood cell content and which requires hospitalization to cure.

The youth survey indicates that 57 per cent of students feel Williams Lake has laws and norms favorable toward drug use ( risk ); 59 per cent of youth reported parental attitudes favorable toward antisocial behavior and drugs ( risk ); 53 per cent of students reported a low level of commitment to school ( risk ); 37 per cent of youth became involved in antisocial behavior and drug use at an early age ( risk ); and 48 per cent of students feel that there are rewards for pro-social involvement in the community ( protective ).

The youth survey is available at www.williamslake.ca

The report states that a significant number of students have high levels of protective factors ( 60 per cent ). Youth reported that schools are doing a very good job at providing both opportunities and rewards for pro-social involvement and that there are also lots of opportunities for pro-social involvement in the community.

Columnist Peter McKnight's assertion that drug prohibition is doomed to failure may or may not be correct.

Unfortunately, he neglects to consider a major factor that gets lost in the all-or-nothing debate over legalization.

That factor is prevention.

For less than $2 per student, education ministry-approved curriculum could provide evidence-based preventive drug education in B.C. classrooms. Vancouver's Insite program spends about $540 per client so addicts can have a safe injection site.

Yet to provide all 350,000 B.C. students in Grades 4 to 10 with seven years of preventive education could cost less than $600,000. Insite's yearly budget is nearly $3 million.

Treatment of existing problems is essential, but it might be wise to steer more resources toward the future. Education can work, as it has for tobacco, and the price is minuscule compared to the cost of a failed "war on drugs," or one against users we'll never wage.

A lawyer for Randy Potts, a member of the Hells Angels who pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking offences, says Potts should be sentenced to either a period of probation or a short jail term.

In December, Potts, a full-patch member of the East End chapter of the notorious motorcycle club, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce and traffic in methamphetamines and to trafficking in cocaine.

The prosecution told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Leask that Potts, now out on bail, should receive a jail term of 12 years, minus a year for presentence custody.

But on Wednesday, Bonnie Craig, a lawyer for Potts, argued that the judge should consider his sentencing last year for gun offences when sentencing for the drug crimes.