After reading several interviews and short stories about the "Safe Haven Facilities" in countries across the world, it makes one feel almost cheated out of the fairy tale life our parents used to read to us when we were younger.
We were always told stories about princes and princesses, love and romance, once upon a time beginnings and happily ever after endings. But what we weren't told were stories about peers, family, friends, and about any other person you could ever imagine being lured into, experimenting and possibly dying of addictive substances. .
It is said that in the sixth grade an RCMP officer comes to the classroom once to give us all a heart to heart on drugs before we enter the high school. When we met with the officer he started by saying right off the bat that if we are ever pressured into doing drugs, "Just Say No!". Well what happens if we don't say no? What happens when it is a potential friend that is asking us? Children won't run to authorities or tell the teacher on duty that a kid just asked them to smoke a joint with him on library hill! If the child any has common sense he would simply walk away from the situation. But really how many kids would just walk away? Kids are naturally curious about all sorts of things including new experiences.
They never taught us the harmful effects of the drugs or the struggles that junkies go through on a day to day basis on the streets. They never told us that if we don't watch for the signs, that one of these days those junkies could be us, or even worse a close friend! But what they did teach us was "Just Say No!".
As a youth you get know first hand the peer pressure to do any variety of drugs. Government often catagorize these substances under labels such as a gateway-drug or a hard-drug. The majority of users come from a pattern originating from one substance and each time preceding to move up the scale to higher risk substances.