Education a key tool to helping win the war on drugs in Swift Current

Nelson Pompu, an Emergency Medical Technician with the Swift Current and District Ambulance Service, has seen it all when it comes to emergency medical rescues and responding to calls resulting from drug and alcohol abuse.

Pompu said it is not a pretty site when he sees first-hand the problems in the community. He said the reality is shocking and he wants everyone to be aware of what he sees, and for the community to try and eliminate the problem.

"Whether you want to admit it or not, we are at war right now. We are at war with people that want to control our kids, kids in our community, kids in our province and kids in our country," Pompu said. "It is going to take a real concerted effort on everybodies part to beat this thing."

A key to a solution is education of the problem and helping youth avoid drugs in the first place.

"One of the ways that we are trying to do that lately is presenting a book to children in grade five classes in the city and surrounding areas. It is called 'Drug Safety- Smart Choices for Life'. These books are sponsored by the Lions Club of Swift Current and are given free of charge to the kids."

"What we are telling the children is take this book home and read it. Read it with your parents. Read it with your care givers. Read it with your brothers and sisters because it gives them the actual facts about drug use and about what it does to your body and your mind."

The book also comes with a DVD to help to get the information to the children.

"What these books deal with is all types of drugs from the illicit drugs to the legal ones like smoking and alcohol," he explained. "They can also go to www.communitysafetynet.com and answer a quiz. It is a safe site and they can get their name put in for prizes such as caps, t-shirts and computers."

"At the back of the book is, and really push this to the kids, 'A Pledge for My Future'. It says 'I respect myself and I want to protect my future. That is why I am making the following commitment - This pledge may be reviewed and revised on my (future) birthday. I solemnly promise to abide by the following rules - I will not consume alcohol. I will not smoke or use any tobacco products. I will not use any illegal drugs and I do not want to associate with known drug users.' Then you get them to sign and date it."

While there are naysayers as to the success of this pledge, Pompu notes that even one saved child is worth the investment.

"Some people are going to say, 'how many kids are going to do that?' But if just one child does it and won't commit. If it keeps just one child off of drugs and alcohol and from smoking, is it worth it? Absolutely! For the couple thousand dollars that it cost to print up those books, we save hundreds of thousands of dollars on the medical side of things treating these people and getting them off the drugs and looking after them when they end up in out ICU's and our hospitals and the grief the parents and family and loved ones feel when they die from an overdose."

In his presentation to students, Pompu makes it very clear what a dealer's motives are behind selling drugs.

"I am really blunt with the kids when we are talking with them because they need to know the facts now, because those people that are out there selling them those drugs. I ask the kids, 'What do they want from you?', and one little girls says, 'Friendship.' 'That is a lie. That is what they want you to believe.' they say, 'Your mother and father don't understand you. Your teachers don't appreciate you. Your brothers and sisters and friends alienate you. I am here to be your friend. In fact, you know what? I have something here that is going to make you feel good, free.' The next time you need more, it is free. Pretty soon it is not free and they know that they have got them hooked, so then it is a cost.

"What they want is your money. They don't care if you have a job and put every cent from that job into drugs. They don't care if you have to steal from your parents or your brother or your sister. They don't care if you have to steal stuff and sell it. They don't care if you have to sell your body on the street to a stranger to get money. That is all that they want.'"

"That is the truth that the kids need to hear, although it is not a very pretty truth. It is the truth so there is one way that we are trying to make a difference out there is giving them the information that they need."

There are even substances out on the street that the dealers themselves are afraid of.

"Boy, have I ever seen some of those things out on the street. PCP is a hallucinogen, a very powerful hallucinogen. Even the drug dealers are scared to death of it because it stays in your system longer and you can have flashbacks a long time after you have taken it. You only ever have to experience somebody who has been on PCP once to remember it."

On a call to care for an individual who had jumped off the roof of a house, Pompu recalls being thrown six to eight feet by the individual before three RCMP officers and three other people finally subdued the individual long enough to be restrained on an ambulance stretcher.

"I will never forget the screaming that came out of that man for the rest of my life because it was something like you would see in a horror show, something like an animalistic scream," he said. "He started to heave. Our stretchers are held together by rivets. He actually pulled a section of the stretcher off. He unfurled the rivet and that takes hundreds and hundreds of pounds if not thousands of pounds of pressure to be able to do that and he did it."

"That is just the kinds of things that some of these drugs can do to you."

Not all drugs that can cause serious problem are illegal. Abuse and misuse of every day medications can be harmful as well.

"65,000 people in the United States last year ended up in emergency departments from one particular drug - Tylenol. Tylenol, when taken in a therapeutic dose, is a very good pain killer. Tylenol, when overdosed on, can damage the liver because all the medications that you take or a lot of medications that you take are metabolized or broken down in the liver."

"Tylenol is very taxing on the liver and there are certain enzymes are produced that can actually harm the liver. It can also affect the kidneys. The problem with Tylenol is it takes many hours before the first onset of symptoms that there is a real problem there with it so where people have been takeing a large overdose of Tylenol and we are seeing it with kids. There is more to drug abuse than just getting 'high'."

"What they are doing is that they are looking for an escape and they are taking this Tylenol looking for help a lot of the time. What they don't realize that a lot of times when you take that overdose of Tylenol and you don't tell anybody, it is a death sentence, a slow painful death."

He reminds parents to regulate the storage of medications in their homes, not keep outdated medications, and certainly keep all medications out of the reach of young children.

Alcohol is a real problem as well and Pompu explained some of the dangers with it as well.

"The problem that we don't realize is that alcohol, though socially acceptable and promoted in our society, is a drug. These kids, especially the binge drinkers - and that is the problem we are seeing is the binge drinking kids...not used to regulating how quickly they take their alcohol so they guzzle it."

"Studies are being done on the effects of alcohol on the brain. There is some evidence right now that up to the age of 22 you can have severe injury to the brain from binge drinking and from drinking in particular, so it will be interesting to find out what the long-term effects of this type of drinking are on our children."

Everyday prescribed drugs are also being misused and Ritalin is a major problem.

"It is a great medication that has helped many, many people, but the body can't distinguish it from cocaine and from amphetamines because it is along that same line, so people take overdoses or take a bunch of the stuff and they get feeling really good. The problem is it increases your heart rate and it does a few other things medically to you and then they take these energy drinks on top of it, compounding it, and it can actually cause them to have fatal arrhythmia."

"Then you will get people that are on medication that will modify their moods. When they take liquor with that it brings you down even further, so then these people start to go into depressions and can end up committing suicide, so you see the compounding effects of some of these medications on other medications and our problem is we are finding people going through medicine cabinets and grabbing a whole bunch of pills and taking them."

gbowditch@swbooster.com