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Pa ge 2 0 T hu rs da y, Ja nu ar y 15 , 2 01 5 - T he IF P - H al to n H ill s - w w w .th ei fp .c a • To increase the likelihood of completing your education • To increase the likelihood of re-establishing relationships • To improve self-esteem and quality of life Why Start Methadone? • To eliminate withdrawal symptoms • To decrease or eliminate cravings for opioids • To stabilize social, emotional and financial aspects of ones life • To increase the likelihood of maintaining stable employment About us: • Physician supervised methadone treatment • All services covered by OHIP • Methadone Maintenance Treatment is one of the most successful ways to treat an opioid addiction Methadone Clinic in Georgetown Accepting Patients Georgetown Pharmacy www.georgetownpharmacy.ca Angelo Dias Pharmacy Manager 905-877-8888 angelo@georgetownpharmacy.ca 118 Mill Street, Unit 101 Georgetown ON L7G 2C5 Monday to Friday 9:00am to 7:00pm Saturday 9:00am to 4:00pm Sundays and Holidays 10:00am to 2:00pm HORIZONS opioidtreatmentservice Call 905-877-88 88 for more info rmation and to book an appointment NEWS A conversation about sexting made Oakville high school students anxiously squirm in their seats and fall silent as the topic turned to teen suicide and drug addiction. "The fun went out of drug use the day I got hooked. The fun went out of it the day I couldn't say no and I had everything," addic- tion counselor and radio personality Mark El- liot told teens from the 11 schools that attend- ed an Oakville Youth Symposium. The inaugural event hosted by the Halton Regional Police Service and Optimist Club of Oakville brought together Elliot, Toronto po- lice Cst. Laurie McCann and local peer mentor Korey McDermott. "You make the decision about whether or not you want to be right, or whether or not you want to be high," Elliot said. "If you think you might have a problem-- reach out…I can't help anybody who doesn't want help." A prominent music journalist in the late 1970s and 80s, often doing drugs with the rich and famous, Elliot was eventually fired from his job by a boss he now credits with saving his life. "My self-esteem, hooked on cocaine, was in the little bag that I kept in my pocket poured out on the table laid in a line and snorted," he told the attentive crowd. "I know I should have died. I know that it was because of someone who cared enough that I was able to make it to recovery." And while Elliot can say that his recovery more than 20 years later still rests on the deci- sions he makes in the day-to-day, he can also say without hesitation that he's found a skillset in speaking to people about addiction. "There's something special about one ad- dict working with another, which is that if you can be as hopeless and crazy as I am, or was, and I can do this then you can do it too - you can make it," he said. Similarly, Korey McDermott has found re- newal in helping others overcome the mental health struggles that saw expelled from school, be institutionalized on two occasions and at- tempt to take his own life at only 13 years old. "I'm like a chemical reaction of my previous experiences," he said. "I live to serve…I find that my purpose in life is to speak to people, to really connect with them." He's now a community volunteer and peer mentor with POSSE- a youth-driven harm re- duction program in Halton- and is enrolled in Sheridan College's social worker program. Social media expert and Toronto police Cst. Laurie McCann then tested the teen's knowl- edge of how much information they're un- knowingly sharing with strangers on popular website and apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. "It's not a totally secure thing when you think that that picture just disappears," Mc- Cann said of Snapchat - a photo-sharing app that allows users to temporarily receive me- dia from others before it disappears off their phone. "It (the photo) has to go to a server that is owned by Snapchat. Your last 200 Snaps are saved on that server…so if we police officers need to get those photos - we can." The popular app has gain notoriety amongst users who use it to send, and receive, nude photos - otherwise known as sexting. "It's all fun and games until it ends up on the Internet," McCann said. "If you take that pause (before sending) and you think I don't know if I should, then you probably shouldn't." According to statistics gathered by U.S. clinical psychologist Dr. James Wellborn, and included as part of McCann's presentation, 60 per cent of teens who sent nude or semi-nude photos do it for fun, not peer pressure. "It's all fun and games until it ends up on the Internet," McCann said. "If you take that pause (before sending) and you think I don't know if I should, then you probably shouldn't." Websites such as Needhelpnow.ca can help people take down photo that may have been shared privately and made its way onto the Internet. "Never put photos of your friends on your (social media sites… unless they give you per- mission - that's just social media etiquette," McCann said. The teens where also advised to review some of Facebook's 96 different account and privacy settings, and turn off features such as geo-tagging that applies metadata to online photos so people can see on a map where it was taken. McCann hopes that by making teens more aware about the information their sharing on- line it can help to protect them against online harassment known as cyber-bullying. "It's behind the scenes; It's somebody sit- ting behind a computer; It's 24/7," she said. "It doesn't just happen …in Halton Region. What you do here can go worldwide." The result of cyber-bullying in several high- profile cases such Canadian teens Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons has led to suicide. McCann encourage those in the room to recognize the warning signs amongst each other before it's too late. "You're sitting beside a friend," McCann said. "If you think that there might not be something right… maybe reach out to them because one hug or simple comment can change somebody's life." By Michael Gregory Metroland Media Group Students hear about sexting dangers at Youth Symposium