Drugs? Alcohol?

Yes, the old temptations are hanging in to jeopardize the mental and physical health of a generation of young people. But they've been joined by a new kink on the block:

Gambling.

Today's teenagers are "the first generation to grow up with gambling that is heavily marketed and socially accepted." That observation is from Gambling Boys, an eye-opening documentary that will air tonight at 10 on CBC News Network (which was still called Newsworld the last time I looked at it).

Director Laura Turek's film looks at a problem that mainly affects boys. The doc focuses on three problem gamblers:

n Dakota, a 14-year-old Montrealer with a serious poker habit. We see kids in a basement, dealing cards and pushing chips around the table: The Cincinnati Kid with acne.

n Jamie, a 21-year-old resident of Ottawa who ducked out of high school classes to gamble. Cameras follow him into the Gatineau casino.

n Clifford, an 18-year-old Ottawa sports gambler who started with scratch cards when he was 12 and would bet from $500 to $2,000 on a Sunday slate of National Football League games and once had $96,000 riding on the Super Bowl. Currently in rehab, Clifford says he "never felt so alive" as he did while enjoying the rush of high-roller betting.

Gambling Boys also features Did Tafari Belizaire. A Montrealer of Haitian extraction, Belizaire got into gambling debt so deeply he attempted suicide.

He survived a jump off the Jacques Cartier Bridge. But it left Belizaire wheelchair-bound, and he tells the young gamblers he counsels that his treatment took 3.8 seconds - the time it took to hit the water.

"Did connects really well with kids," says Sally Bochner, Gambling Boys co-producer. "He's an interesting guy and very up-front about his experience."

Jeff Derevensky, director of McGill University's International Centre for Youth Gambling and High Risk Behaviours was a consultant on the film. It's important, Bochner says, to make children and parents aware of the allure of gambling and its potential problems.

Of course, our worst gambling addicts are provincial governments. Loto-Québec is planning to join B.C. and the four Atlantic Provinces in an online gambling enterprise that will swell government coffers while tapping the bank accounts of deluded dimwits who think they can beat the odds.

"I always felt you could just slap somebody's hand and say, 'Stop doing that,' " Bochner said. "For heaven's sake, you're not swallowing something, you're not inhaling. Don't go to the casino. Don't bet.

"But these kids who are addicted to gambling get a physical reaction that is similar to the high an addict gets from cocaine. It's an adrenalin rush, not just bad behaviour."

Gambling Boys airs tonight at 10 on CBC News Network. There will be a repeat telecast March 7 at 8 p.m. One the web: www.gamblingboys.ca

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