A public service page to assist parents, families, and caregivers to recognize and help deal with drug abuse.

Introduction by 

Lisette McArthur M.S.W. - Opening Doors Counselling, Alberta

  There are no secret pathways to travel in our ardent desire to protect our children, our youth from drugs.  Yet the most revealing thought is that as soon as we buy the lock to guard them, the dealer, the drug and the seduction of teasing death are already groping over for its key.  The stories of loss of potential, loss of future, loss of life, are powerful warning to us all.  Through this site we will read some heart wrenching stories.  Perhaps some of you will be moved to tears, and well you should.  But the purpose of this site is not to hurt or alarm you.  Our purpose it to empower you to stand up and build a fortress of education, love and awareness around your family.

  For decades we have heard of children who are addicted and their stealing from their parents and siblings.  Please know than an addict is often the hidden wound in many families.  For every revealed story of addicted youth, there are three families dealing with their hell in secret.  Addiction has created an ocean of pain.  In these cold and heartless waters, our society drowns, and our hopes are washed away.

  These stories speak of our limitations to protect the most precious part of our lives: our children.  Reading them, we will learn how much these parents loved, watched and protected their children.  Yet they may not have all the facts, not because they did not care, but because some drug use has become quite hard to identify.  The trajectory of these drugs is prompt and lethal.  Their presence could be in common household items that no one could guess can pose a threat.  The allure of such drugs is being made to younger and younger children.  Eight, seven, six year olds are being prompted to start inhaling, smoking, and drinking.  Our safety zone has receded to pre-school years.

  Through this site, we seek not only to provide information for the family who is not imbued in tragedy, but we wish to honour the pain the families who write us have endured by sharing their stories and helping others avoid such sad fate.  We hope that their pain and courage in sharing their story will motivate us to better protect our children, while there is still time. 

  Please reflect that this is an educational resource, and although the lesson is bitter, we should not fall prey to despair and think that nothing we can do matters.  Despair will make us kneel under the weight of our jobs, make us avoidant to educate our children, drive us to over pursue commitments outside of our homes and assume that some how our child will be spared.  Yet listening to despair will not help us or give us solace when (not if) drugs stride into our child’s life. 

  No war has ever been won by the army that does not show up and cowers inside their city. Hiding our minds from the reality that drugs are aggressively claiming the lives and future of our children will no longer spare us from the siege of drugs.  Avoidance and denial actually has helped drugs come in closer.  Our inability to face the enemy makes the invaders welcome to come right in and take all we hold dear.

  In these pages you will read the signs to look for in your children.  You will find ways to identify drugs by photos, so that you can match the odd looking pill to the database, and thus know what they are.  There are links to a dictionary of drug related words.  If you happen to hear your children speak an unknown word, you can type it in the database and it will tell you if it is a known drug term.

  You will find a web site that will show you what implements or tools (known as drug paraphernalia) look like, so that if you find them you will actually be able to recognize them.  Misinformation and naiveté will make you and your family a target.  In order to fight and protect what we love, we must abandon our resistance and become empowered by advanced knowledge of drugs, its image, its tools, its effects, its language, its smells, its aura.  We already know what drugs offer: death and desolation.  It is time we all stood up and stared our enemy in the eyes, and without blinking, say into its fiery red eyes: I know you.  I can fight back, chase you, unmask you and run you down.  You no longer can operate in the darkness.

  The test of our spirits is not the easy path, but the one that lies thorny, dark and steep.  This is better said in the words of Winston Churchill: "Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.''

  And this is exactly what we must do when we think about the scourge of drugs and its menace to ourselves and our children: This is a battle we cannot afford to lose.  We have not the luxury of looking away or giving in.

This website will certainly help towards this goal. There are many other excellent resources available online, and hopefully in your community, seek them out as well.

Warning Signs of Substance Abuse

Symptoms of Drug Use

Marijuana - red eyes, reduced concentration, drowsiness, talkativeness, laughter, hunger, euphoria, relaxed, disoriented behavior & dramatic change in lifestyle.

Alcohol - intoxication, watery glazed eyes, mood swings, slurred speech, unsteady walk, & loss of appetite.

Cocaine - Bright staring shiny eyes, excitation, euphoria, high pulse, higher blood pressure, restlessness, insomnia, appetite loss, dramatic mood change & runny nose.

Methamphetamine - Dilated pupils, bright shiny eyes, excitation, alertness, talkative, increased pulse rate & blood pressure, anxiety, insomnia, appetite loss, confusion, paranoia, & sweating.

Depressants - Constricted pupils, slow breathing & heart rate, slurred speech, disorientation, & drunken-like behavior.

GHB (degreasing solvent) - Intoxication, increased energy, affectionate and playful behavior, loss of coordination, loss of gag reflex, lack of inhibition.

PCP - (Phencyclidine) - Wide staring eyes, hallucination, poor perception of time & distance, paranoia, irritability, panic, confusion, anxiety, slurred speech & loss of memory. Maybe drowsy or hyper; impaired coordination. 

LSD - (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) - Dilated pupils, hallucinations, poor perception of time and distance; mood will be altered, may experience panic, confusion, & anxiety.

Narcotics - Pinpoint pupils, euphoria, drowsiness, head nodding, slowed breathing, & apathy.

Inhalants - 'Wild' eyes, dilated pupils, psychosis, paranoia, violent actions, paint on face, loss of memory function, & odor of glue or paint.

Steroids - edginess, excitability, anxiety, anger, perhaps panic, depression, poor concentration, shorter attention span, insomnia, swelling or bloating of the face and/or body, pimples on face & back, & increased muscle bulk.