Carlnika Roser is the on-call Drug Prevention Officer at the Bermuda Police Service. A ten-year veteran of the service, Det. Con. Roser migrated to the Drug and Crime Prevention office in 2004, and has grown to love her position as the face of drug prevention for the youth of Bermuda.

Her daily duties include developing programmes geared toward preventing the use and abuse of illegal drugs, monitoring worldwide trends in illegal drug use, and coordinating programmes with various local drug prevention agencies, such as the National Drug Commission and Pride.

Miss Roser is also responsible for designing presentations about various strategies to prevent drug use in the community, which she delivers to community groups by request. She has spoken in schools, corporate conference rooms, and to parent groups during her time in the Drug Prevention office.

Her presentations are custom designed, and she never delivers the same lecture twice.

She is very sensitive to the needs of her audience, and can modify a presentation to cater to the specific needs of any group of people; especially school-aged children.

Her presentations normally involve a lecture accompanied by a specially designed PowerPoint slide show, followed by a question and answer period and distribution of relevant literature. Sometimes there is a test involved: a pre-test to discern prior knowledge of the material, and a post-test to find out what was learned.

There is a passion for education flowing through Det. Con. Roser's veins, and she takes her job very seriously.

She works assiduously to coordinate with community organisations, ensure that the proper literature is readily available for distribution, research the latest trends in international drug trafficking, and ensure that parents, especially, know what they can do to prevent drug use in their own homes and communities.

In fact, Det. Con. Roser describes the role of the parent in preventing early drug abuse as absolutely vital.

Part of her job is also to curb the perennial problem of underage drinking; a phenomenon that often leads to illegal drug abuse at an early age.

She advises parents to be very aware of their own behaviour while their children are watching, saying that drinking or using drugs around your child "promotes unhealthy lifestyle choices for young people".

She adds: "The repercussions of modelling irresponsible drinking habits are bad for young impressionable minds."

She illustrates this point by recalling a young person who, after a presentation at a local primary school, came up to her to discuss the lesson and disclosed the following: "My mommy had a bottle of wine with dinner."

Det. Con. Roser does not say that parents should never indulge in legal substances, but suggests that an entire bottle of wine may be a bit much to drink while your young child is watching. And, rest assured, she advises: "You are being watched!"

The good news, depending on your perspective, is that your child is concerned; which means that they can be talked to and prevented from using drugs.

It's difficult to balance the proper model behaviour with the appropriate amount of parental involvement, but when statistics show that 93 percent of all drug users in Bermuda have already used illegal substances by the age of 14, it becomes even more difficult to not even try.

Det. Con. Roser tries to save your child everyday. She describes the experience of presenting to a room full of children as very rewarding, saying that there's "always one child" that gets the message loud and clear.

That's one more future that won't be destroyed by drugs, and one more family that won't be torn apart by them.

Det. Con. Roser can be contacted for bookings at the Bermuda Police Service Crime and Drug Prevention Office on 299-4455.