Drug Treatment Court Magistrate Pamela Beckles advised a young man this evening to “walk away from conflict”.
The advice was given during a follow-up session for participants in the Drug Treatment Programme. The young man had a high reading for drugs in his system in September but has remained clean since then.
Jerry Bellamy, counsellor with the Centre for Counselling Addiction Support Services (CASA), described it as “excellent progress”.
When the man was asked to speak
about his recent experiences, he replied by saying that peer pressure, frustration and “persons who come around you with foolishness” could easily be responsible for making him relapse.
Beckles urged him to “make wise choices.
“If we walk away from conflict, many of us will live to see another day,” she added.
“You don’t want a conviction remaining on your record for a number of years before it can get expunged; and then if you need police certificate of character, it affects you,” she stressed.
“Well, you’re a little too old for peer pressure, but as for frustration, we all have it; take a walk on the beach or the Boardwalk. Barbados is too beautiful for you not to have other options,” she pointed out.
“When we look at all the other challenges out there in this world, what do we have to be so angry about? We don’t have ISIS here.
Every morning when we get up, we should thank God that we live in Barbados,” Magistrate Beckles said.
Bellamy explained, though, that “we would be surprised at the things which so easily make young men angry”.
He said that participants in the Drug Treatment Programme are exposed to anger management sessions but there is a need for them to learn to “manage their emotions without resorting to marijuana”.