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Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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-4°C
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-4°C
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N/A%
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Publisher Posts to WEB |
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Written by Del Laverdure
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Tuesday, 20 March 2007 |
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Publsiher tests website.
Here is see how easy it is to add a hyperlink www.princegeorgecitizen.com
Here I cut and pasted this from www.princegeorgecitizen.com
Outrage greets syringe pen
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff
A Prince George youth worker is upset by a pen that is being sold locally that looks like a syringe filled with blood.
Bruce Morin, a youth employment and training officer with Prince George Nechako Aboriginal Employment and Training Association, is worried about the message the novelty pen sends.
"For me, this is a case of the public advocating for these things if they are available on store shelves," said Morin, who is also a youth leadership/personal growth counsellor. "This stuff is not to be mimicked, not to be made a novelty for a buck. Are we so hungry for a dollar that we will trivialize drug addiction and these needles that carry disease and suffering?"
Morin said the needle pen came from a local dollar store and was given to him by a 10-year-old. When he approached the manager of the store, Morin said the proprietor agreed with his assessment and committed to pulling the pens from the shelves.
"It would be nice if merchants voluntarily pulled these things," said Morin. "I am particularly concerned about how really young people see these things. If a child thinks a real needle is just a pen and picks it up off the street, we have put that child in danger just by turning a blind eye to some gimmick. The pen might be funny to some people, but the danger is real and serious and we shouldn't downplay that for the sake of a cheap novelty."
Andrew Burton, one of the region's leading drug recovery counsellors, said he is not alarmed by the presence of the pens, but confesses to a certain jading around "the bad taste of marketing people" when it comes to capitalizing on drug culture.
"What it does is -- what that stuff has always done -- it normalizes behaviour that is dangerous and counterproductive," Burton said. "I remember the marijuana leaf T-shirts from back in my day. In the Reagan era they had those commercials 'This is your brain on drugs' and the image was a fried egg. Within a week of that anti-drug ad there were posters out that said '... and here is your brain on drugs with a side of bacon and some toast.' It is humour, but what it does is normalize substance-using behaviour and that is always a problem. Some people can't make the delineation between what is safe and unsafe behaviour, they make their choices based on what is funny and cool. Anything that makes that cool, exotic or interesting promotes the acceptance of drugs."
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