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Local school divisions concerned about drug use in region

Dec 18, 2017 | 9:08 AM

 

MEDICINE HAT, AB — All three school divisions in Medicine Hat are sounding the alarm for students regarding drug overdoses in Medicine Hat and area.

SD76, the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education and the Prairie Rose School Division issued a joint statement earlier this month, expressing concern regarding drug use, specifically fentanyl and overdoses in the area.

“Provincially and locally, the number of overdose cases is on the rise, and in some instances young people have experienced overdose after taking drugs given to them by peers,” the statement reads.

The school divisions are encouraging families to discuss the dangers of taking drugs, including prescription drugs, regardless how legitimate they may appear, with their children.

“As leaders of our organizations, we thought why would we wait?” said Roger Clarke, superintendent with Prairie Rose School Division. “Why would we wait until we had major problems in our region before we decided to encourage our parents to do some reading to be more aware, and obviously to help our youth in our region before we started having to deal with some really difficult items?”

CHAT News Today spoke with Clarke about the statement and concerns in the region. Video from the interview can be watched below.

 

Clarke agrees some kids have the mentality that they’re invincible and nothing will hurt them.

He’s hopeful parents will continue to remind them that drugs can cause real dangers to them.

“We clearly can see in the trends around Alberta, that it does affect people and in devastating ways,” he added. “We would not want any parent getting that message so hopefully our parents will take the tri-division message to heart and look at some of the resources that they could be accessing.”