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.

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.

The abused drugs include pain pills and attention deficit drugs used as study aids.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that the drug use was most common among 12th graders. White students took the drugs more than blacks or Hispanics.

The CDC did not have information on which drugs were abused the most.

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.

child. Laws force parents to stand by and do nothing while their

child self-destructs. Why would the sensible teen of model parents who knows the risks of illegal drugs start using? The answers can be as varied as the individuals: To fit in. To blunt feelings of inadequacy. To avoid arguments and create a false sense of togetherness.

For years parents have cautioned their kids to avoid drugs. Schools have lectured our children on the evils of drugs, and brought in RCMP to inform both students and parents on the signs of drug-taking and the long-term physical harm drugs can do.

At $5 to $20 a tablet, ecstasy is an accessible drug affordable to teens. Odorless, the pills are easy to carry and to hide. The colourful tablets look like children's vitamins with patterns on them of Christmas trees, Bart Simpson, or some other harmless symbol.

A handout that is commonly posted in stores and pharmacies states that in order to make meth a person needs Ephedrine, which is found in cold medication.

The equipment needed to make meth are everyday house hold items, aluminum foil, basters, coffee filters, coolers, Funnels, lithium batteries, jars, propane tanks and rubber tubing.

A ceremony yesterday marked the completion of construction of The Crossing, a 42-bed facility on a 24-hectare site about six kilometres from Keremeos. Staff have been hired and the first clients have been accepted.

Central City Foundation, which owns the property and is leasing it at no cost to the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal Health authorities, has pledged another $1 million to the project and raised $5.5 million more from private donors.

The Crossing will help both boys and girls. The existing Last Door Recovery Society has operated a long-term, residential treatment centre for male youth in B.C. for more than 13 years, and an adult program for 25 years.

"We feel enormously proud of the effort the foundation has put forward," said Jennifer Johnstone, Central City Foundation president and chief executive.

The Crossing will operate with about $2.4 million in annual funding from the two Lower Mainland health authorities, while Interior Health will provide urgent or emergency services.

That's the message a retired police officer turned drug educator told delegates attending the annual spring meeting of the Georgian Bay Conference of the ELCIC ( Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada ).

"We give our kids medicine and tell them it's safe . . . what we have forgotten to tell them is that drugs are safe only if you follow the rules," Heather Hodgson- Schleich said.

"As soon as a child starts talking, start talking to them, at age appropriate levels, about drugs. Make sure they understand the rules about medicine use. We don't wait for them to be hit before we tell them about traffic safety or talk to them about stranger awareness. It's the same with drugs. The more they know, the better prepared they will be."