GOING SOFT ON DRUG USE THE WRONG TACK TO SAIL

Drugs are drugs, and kids are kids. Fort Saskatchewan is not immune
to drug use, and it's only fair to admit to ourselves that, yes,
students are smoking up.

You can live in a world of beautiful delusion and ignorance if you'd
like, but the Fort isn't some secluded colony where no teenagers have
heard of drugs.

The problem is it seems those who have accepted that teens use drugs
are now simply letting it happen.

That's not to say Fort Saskatchewan RCMP aren't revving up against
drug use in the city because they are. And it's not a stretch to say
there are community members helping police in that endeavor.

But in case you haven't heard it, there's a radio commercial being
played right now, put together by a branch of the provincial
government, about drug use prior to getting behind the wheel.

Sure, there are strong statistics in there. The whole notion of 40
per cent more teens saying they've gotten into a car with a driver
who was high rather than drunk is disturbing, but is this commercial
what we're now aiming at?

The fight is no longer about keeping kids from using drugs, instead
becoming an attempt to keep them safe when they're higher than a
weather balloon (or UFO as they see it).

Yes, kids use drugs. They probably always will. It's self-serving to
believe otherwise. But to get to the point where even the government
is saying "You know what? They're using drugs, so let's just make
sure they aren't driving afterwards." isn't right.

Instead of blanketing the radio with advertisements about getting
stoned then slipping behind the wheel of the car, maybe remind teens
to just not do drugs.

Even if they want to target drug-impaired driving, why not hit the
issue hard? At least give teens some facts that will scare them.

If 40 per cent of teens said such and such, it means those teens are
still alive. How is that a deterrent?

A (kind of) smart adolescent will hear that and think "Okay, so they
did it, and lived through it to tell the story."

Why not say how many teens died from drug-related collisions over the
past however many years?

It's always been my position that kids and teenagers are stupid, and
that's not their fault.

A three year old isn't going to be smart when compared to the rest of
the world because they're three. It's in their biology that their
brain is stupid in comparison.

But for a three year old, they could be genius.

That same theory applies to teenagers. They're still going to be
hormonal, rebellious, and yes, sometimes stupid - but only in the big picture.

Compared to other teens, their minds may be moving 1,000 miles a minute.

So give them that credit and maybe start showing that taking a
relaxed approach to drug use isn't the best way to go. If you don't
want kids driving while high, get it out there that, if they do,
they'll either get caught or wind up in a body bag.

It's not the nicest image, but I for one am sick of this governmental
approach meant to please everybody and offend nobody.