British Columbia Legislature 42nd Parliament, 2nd Session (2021) Statements, 7 Oct 2021

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From YouTube: OCTOBER 7 2021 Statements Sonia Furstenau

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The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
2nd Session
42nd Parliament

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Leader of the third party.

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Thank you honorable speaker today, I'm reading a statement written by jada lynn, abdel rahim, who is a high school student at esquimalt, high, I'm addressing the legislature today with respect and honor in hopes of bringing victoria's youth and their voices together. There is a huge gap in our education between understanding and proper prevention skills, targeting mental health crises and substance addictions.

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It is true we grow up to make our own decisions, but suicide and overdoses are never a choice to a youth that has yet to even learn the full potential of themselves.

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I want to be able to grow up with my best friends and watch their beautiful souls grow and evolve. I love where I am from and I am proud to live on this island.

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However, I am ashamed of how many of my friends I'm losing to the failure of our education in context to the importance of our mental health and the toxic drug levels constantly rising on our streets when our youth grow up in such a small community, with the known effects of peer pressures and media influences, the only way to truly influence youth on drug prevention and mental health awareness is to bring education to them.

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How does one time use turn into an addiction? Is there such a thing as healthy drug use? If someone I hang out with uses drugs, are they a bad person?

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Our youth deserve to learn and feel comfortable, asking questions like these and equally they deserve the truth as brutal emotional or hard as it may be. This starts with daily conversations, not enforced by police or scared into them with school etiquette.

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This starts with our survivors being given the chance to share their experiences, share, how they got involved with drugs in general, the life they lived, the decisions they had to make and what motivated them to find their recovery path.

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Daily education within our school system from trusted crisis survivors, as well as proper, engaging with the youth community, where we learn, will introduce a healthier perspective on saving our youth without racism, stigma or false assumption.