Parenting requires a basketful of tools and the savvy to know when, and how, to use them all.
Among the many tools a good parent will use is the leverage offered by “Just say no.” It’s a simple message: clear, concise and pointed.
Of course, more than a few good parents will find that isn’t enough. The battle against bad choices — including the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol — often takes more than a few rational conversations with your children.
That’s where programs like DARE come in, reaching children in the schools, helping them to understand how to make good choices and helping parents to understand just how important self-esteem and positive role models are to the moulding of a child into a safe and confident adult — one who is able to say no.
There are, of course, far too many people of all ages, and all walks of life, who succumb to the siren’s song of drugs.
And yes, many came from loving, nurturing homes that delivered all the messages in all the right ways. We likely all know such families.
And that’s where organizations like the Central Alberta AIDS Network Society, the Potter’s Hands ministry, and a number of other community and government programs, become so critical. They offer non-judgmental supports, advice and safety when people are at their most vulnerable. And they will gladly offer a hand up out of the nightmare when the drug user is ready to take it. They do difficult work with grace and generosity.
But there’s a great deal at stake here, and no means should be discounted.
It’s easy enough to find evidence of the wasted lives associated with drug and alcohol abuse. Spend an afternoon in the Red Deer Courthouse and see how often drugs play a role in proceedings, either directly related to the charges or as the driving force behind crimes committed.
In recent weeks, a frightening number of people have died after taking a version of the street drug ecstasy, with a chemical makeup altered from its traditional formula. (Ecstasy is not addictive.)
The presence of the deadly compound paramethoxymethamphetamine (PMMA) in place of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has led to the deaths of at least nine people in Alberta and five in British Columbia (the Alberta total includes a 38-year-old Red Deer man).
Police forces have been aggressively searching for the source of this deadly batch of ecstasy and, with the help of community groups like the Central Alberta AIDS Network Society (CAANS), they have been spreading the message of the potential for harm.
But here’s where things threaten to go off the rails.
The CAANS perspective is simple and useful, as far as it goes: the group wants to protect drug users from unnecessary harm. “If you are going to use, let’s talk about how to do it smarter,” executive director Jennifer Vanderschaeghe told an Advocate reporter recently. “We come from a really non-judgmental place.”
But Vanderschaeghe also pronounced the “Just say no” campaign a failure.
That’s the kind of nonsense good parents should ignore: we should never stop helping our children understand that life is full of choices. We should never stop giving them tools to make good choices. And we should never stop instilling in them the strength of character to withstand temptation.
Instead of just suggesting to ecstasy users that they say no to an offer of the drug, because it could kill them, CAANS workers are delivering this message: “If you’re going to use, use safely,” and suggesting they have a friend nearby.
This runs counter to the advice of RCMP K Division SGT Patrick Webb. “There is absolutely no safe level of street drugs,” Webb said a week ago. “Anyone who is taking ecstasy, especially at this point in time, is literally playing Russian roulette with their life. Because PMMA is showing up, there is no antidote.”
The only answer, then, is to just say no.
John Stewart is the Advocate’s managing editor.