A 2004-05 Health Canada survey revealed that the average age of first use reported among Grade 7鈥�9 students was 11 years for alcohol and just under 13 years for cannabis. Some teenagers will 鈥渆xperiment,鈥� but others will use these substances on a more regular basis and go on to have drug or alcohol problems.
Those are disturbing statistics and there was a time when schools thought it would be wise to have a recovering addict speak about the evils of alcohol and drug addiction at a school assembly.
It was soon discovered during class debriefings that the 鈥渁ddict at an assembly鈥� idea was not having the desired effect on emerging and curious adolescent minds. A common issue raised during those discussions was: 鈥淗ow bad can that stuff be? After all, he/she looks like the habits did no permanent damage and here he/she was as the star of the show telling us some pretty colourful stories.鈥�
Which brings us to the current star of the show, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.
As topic No. 1 on nightly national news, late-night comedic monologues and editorials, Ford has 鈥渕ade it.鈥�
Admissions of smoking crack while in a drunken stupor, drinking before, during and after driving, hanging with shady characters and speaking about women, including his own wife, in a way that network TV has to redact, have produced a Ford who might well be the next star of the bestselling Grand Theft Auto V, which is, after all, about the same kind of crimes.
Players take on the role of a criminal or a wannabe in the big city, typically individuals who plan to rise through the ranks of organized crime through the course of the game. The player is given various missions by kingpins and major idols in the city underworld, which must be completed to progress through the storyline.
But this isn鈥檛 a violent video game, it鈥檚 the daily news.
So what are our kids to make of all this? Here is Ford standing up and talking back, sometimes using language that would make a sailor blush, but what the heck 鈥� he鈥檚 the mayor of Canada鈥檚 largest city and these pettifogging quibbling Goody Two Shoes who are trying to break him down just don鈥檛 get it, do they?
Look, he apologized didn鈥檛 he?
For kids, the moral and ethical confusion 鈥� the Internet sale of Ford bobbleheads for hundreds of dollars, Ford T-Shirts, Ford 鈥渃rackburgers鈥� 鈥� looks like just good fun. Maybe Ford will be the next talk-show host.
Crack, booze, keeping the odd spliff in your desk drawer 鈥� come on people, it isn鈥檛 the 1950s anymore, even if that鈥檚 where your parents still live.
According to the Ontario Student Drug Use Survey (1997-2007), the most commonly used substance among teenagers is alcohol. About two-thirds of teenagers reported drinking alcohol in the year before the survey, and one in five teenagers drank in a way that might put them at risk of problems with health, school work or other problems.
The survey also revealed that the second most commonly used drug is cannabis.
About one-third of 91原创 teenagers surveyed reported using cannabis in the year before the survey. Use of other drugs such as ecstasy, LSD, cocaine and crystal methamphetamine was much less common, with about one in 20 students reporting use of these drugs in that period.
So the media, the late-night jokesters, all of us should maybe take a second look at the Ford phenomenon and wonder whether this has moved the horizon of public acceptability somewhere we never thought it would go.
We are also learning that there appear to be different rules for different folks. Any late-teen or 20-something who treated their job, the people around them, the law of the land with the same disdain that Ford has would be instantly unemployed and very likely in court, trying to prove that admission of crack-smoking in a drunken stupor is not a ticket to the pokey.
It seems to me that our kids could be learning a lot from all this, but is it what we want the lesson to be?
听
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
