PROGRAMS WARN KIDS OF DANGER USING DRUGS
Date: Thursday, June 12 @ 23:28:58 PDT
Topic: Enforcement


Some kids are wiser to drugs these days, but police in the schools said younger grades are still blessedly ignorant. They are vulnerable, however, without parental involvement and strong education which is why an old program and two brand new ones are being presented to students by the local RCMP.

"I find at the Grade 5 level I find they are mostly still pretty naive; they don't often know what a joint is, what pot means," said Prince George RCMP Const. Debbie Medcke who leads the city's DARE Program, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education. "At Grade 6 or 7, oh yeah, they are pretty smart about that. By Grade 7 for sure, and they also have the attitude, too."

The attitude is the gravest concern. It is the bravado of youth. It may not be a negative or rebellious outlook on life, just a sense of their own independence but without the context of social danger. Organized crime has a team of foot soldiers in the city, street dealers, and they prey on schoolyards where they can find that attitude in someone looking for a little adventure or escape.

"A lot of people have heard drug names like jib and ice for crystal meth, but how about strawberry quick or cherry blast? Who do you think these names appeal to?," said Prince George RCMP Const. Lesley Dix, in charge of the city's community policing initiatives, including a new one aimed at older kids on the effects of drugs, and another for older grades on the gang industry.

It doesn't take long, once those vulnerable kids are found, to turn them into regular customers, then to indebted customers, then into virtual slaves who are forced to do everything from sexual favours for adults, violence on others, robberies, recruiting more kids into addiction, and other dirty deeds. The weaker the supports at home, the easier it is to lure them into gang servitude.

Dix said the gang-associated life comes with some exciting and comforting promises. She is introducing a new education module for high schools that talks frankly about the growing gang culture in the area.

"North District calls our new program The Three Biggest Lies but I also call it The Truth Behind The Promises," said Dix. "The three biggest lies are that you will have a sense of belonging to a family where you will be safe if you are in the gang; they offer you a sense of protection; and the third lie is they promise you respect."

The truth is, said Dix, being in a gang or even just friends with people in a gang raises your risk of getting seriously hurt or killed. Unlike a family, which will sacrifice as a group for the benefit of the one, gangs demand that each member sacrifice for the benefit of the whole, so there is no real belonging to anything except a parasite stronger than you are. The third lie is about respect: fear is really what gangs foster and no one will regard you well if fear is the root feeling, no one will ever trust you.

"Money is the biggest reason gangs recruit from elementary schools and especially high schools," she said. "They are looking for possible customers for their product. We want to warn students about that before the gangs get them. All they want you to do for them is buy drugs, or be a drug mule. If you become their mule, you are responsible for making a certain amount of money. If you don't make that much, watch out. If you make more than that amount, you will be expected to make that much every time, so if you can't get that much, you owe them. If you were supposed to bring back $500 and you only brought back $400, you owe them $100."

It not only can happen in Prince George, this is exactly what is happening to dozens of teens working today peddling dope in the local community, trying to stay ahead of the demands of the gang leaders. When they fall behind in their money, they have to resort to stealing, breaking into homes, selling their bodies for sex, hurting people, extorting from even their own families, and other tactics of desperation.

"They are old enough at that age to make their own choices, but vulnerable enough to make bad choices with consequences they are forced to live with," said Dix.

Medcke said she is absolutely certain the DARE information is having a positive result, if not for the entire student population, at least for some individual kids who might have gotten lost in drugs but thanks to their education, managed to make safer choices.

"Grade 5, that's a really great age," she said. "You still have the chance to give them information and you can still steer them in the right direction; their minds are not made up about what paths they are going to take, so we work on showing them the right road. It can be a slippery slope after that, especially with the kids who don't have the home support to make choices that keep them away from drugs and the eventual fate of ending up in jail in a few years, or worse. But I truly believe it doesn't matter who or what the parent is - a parent who is into trouble or into drugs themselves - they still want the best for their children. They don't want their kids to go down the paths they did. Those are the parents who know what's waiting for them, and they know that it is a hard thing to get out of once you are in. They are the ones who especially need help for their kids."

Medcke, with the help of Constables Trask and Van Hussen, got to 22 elementary schools this school year ( more than 700 kids total ), which is almost all of them. Her goal is 100 per cent of city elementary schools next year.

Dix said the new gang program for high schools has not yet started in this area, but is about ready to go either late this school year or early in fall.

Both Mounties said it is never too late or too early to talk to your own kids at home about how choices in front of them can lead to positive results in life or towards the desperation and pain of gang life. There is no difference anymore, in Prince George, between doing drugs and being gang involved. Virtually all drugs are controlled by some faction of organized crime.





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http://crystalmethbc.com

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