Dog Days at Halton Schools

June, 2000
If we are to believe a recent headline, drug-sniffing dogs are effectively keeping drugs out of Halton schools. What's more, "high school drug activity has never been a huge problem in Halton." This is probably very reassuring news to a lot of parents. Unfortunately, it perpetuates the misconception about teens and drugs that if you don't see it, it doesn't exist. Drugs may not be a huge problem in Halton, but they are a firmly entrenched problem and one that affects nearly every teen at one time or another.

According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, our children are exposed to drugs at least as early as Grade 7. The Centre's Ontario Student Drug Use Survey tells us that nearly 4% of Grade 7's have tried marijuana. An alarming 6.8% have tried glue sniffing and 12.1% have tried other solvents-a dangerous practice. And, as always, alcohol tops the list with nearly 40% of Grade 7's having tried it at least once. It's interesting to note that most of these kids had been through the D.A.R.E. drug awareness program less than a year earlier. It looks like the message is not getting through.

This 1999 survey shows us that things only get worse in high school. Over 36% of Grade 10's have tried marijuana. This increases to nearly 40% by Grade 12 and more than 43% by Grade 13/OAC. Alcohol use continues to rise, from 74.9% in Grade 10 to 84.6% in Grade 12. Thankfully, glue and inhalant use drops off to nearly zero. The only bit of good news here is that marijuana and alcohol cannot damage a child the way inhalants can.

Enforcement measures such as dog searches don't give us the complete story. Lack of physical evidence and rare arrests for possession only show that we are failing to detect the problem. It's because drugs are so pervasive that they aren't more noticeable. Our kids are good at procuring, carrying, concealing, and distributing. Today's teens are familiar-and comfortable-with a range of substances. These kids also know how to mask the effects of drugs and how to manage the behaviour of the kids who can't handle drugs. We know there is a large problem with drugs. The C.A.M.H. statistics assure us of this. And if we doubt those, we have the results of our own Halton Drug Survey that parallel the provincial results.

The drug our kids use most often-alcohol-cannot be detected by dogs. Nor can dogs detect other signs of drug use: overdoses, suspicious young adults hanging around schools, secretive groups of teens…it's a very long list. Our school administrators are right in trying to eliminate drugs and drug activities from the schools, and dog sweeps may be the easiest, cheapest way to accomplish this. But it's too easy for the drugs to move underground. Face it: the kids are on to us. They know about the drug sweeps. In some situations, they've even had a written warning. So they simply relocate their activities until the threat has passed.

Our kids are selling drugs to each other. They're at the bottom of the merchant ladder, selling small amounts and keeping enough for their own use. They are more mobile than inner city kids. They find friends who can drive them to make a deal. Parents are conveniently away. Some kids take near-toxic amounts of drugs yet don't go to hospital for treatment for fear of reprisal. Many adolescent children, sometimes as young as 14, attend raves and are vulnerable to the pressure to take drugs in a culture of experienced older adolescents.

School boards should be congratulated for having the dogs in. It's a clear message to parents and teens that there are consequences for bringing drugs into school. But in our culture, drug use is a normal daily occurrence. We may be able to keep drugs out of our schools, but that won't keep drugs out of our kids.

  Articles Menu