Unless some catastrophic weather keeps them home, this Labour Day long weekend will more than likely see our teens out kicking off another year of “grad parties.”
It would be naïve of us to think a sternly written editorial will put an end to the all-night ragers that, for some reason, are part of the local culture here. But parents need to have a chin-wag with their kids before they disappear into the parks and trails for hooliganism and tomfoolery.
In fact, we’ve published that editorial before. But things are different this year.
We are seeing an epidemic of overdoses on fentanyl. There have been more than 400 deaths in the province this year. Many of them are not in the faraway Downtown Eastside, unhelpful as that perception is, but rather in the living rooms and bathrooms of the suburbs.
Many so-called “casual” drug users are winding up dead on the floor because they simply didn’t know what they were getting. Students need to know this risk now.
This conversation also needs to address consent. While they may think this only-once-a-year tradition gives them licence to overconsume, drop inhibitions and come what may, the laws of human decency and the laws of Canada are still very much in effect. The RCMP will be out in full force, and rightly so.
This risky rite of passage is usually justified by teens because they think it’s the “last chance” for them to have fun and raise hell.
It’s a high school valedictorian speech cliché, but we’ll borrow it: The best really is yet to come.
Let’s make sure all of our kids make it to graduation day.
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