Pubdate: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 Source: Kelowna Capital News (CN BC) Copyright: 2006, West Partners Publishing Ltd. Contact: http://www.kelownacapnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1294 Author: Jennifer Smith Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) LOOK AT ALL FACTORS OF DRUG ABUSE Random attempts to prevent drug and alcohol abuse may cause a community more harm than good, according to the deputy provincial medical health officer. In a cautionary speech delivered to the Local Government Management Association of B.C. convention held at The Grand in Kelowna this week, Dr. Eric Young warned civil servants from around the province that community task forces and municipal drug strategies are a tricky undertaking. He cautioned that such strategies must be targeted at the right groups, evaluated, and should address the social context producing the abuse. "My view is you're better to take a holistic approach to this," said Young. He said communities should identify groups of users and why they are using before deciding whether messaging is the best route to take. Graphing the burden of disease by risk factors such as illicit drugs, physical inactivity and tobacco use, Young told city administrators that low fruit and vegetable intake, occupational risks, alcohol, tobacco use and high cholesterol all factor higher in mortality and chronic disease levels than illicit drugs. And while the economic impact of substance abuse costs Canadians an estimated $6 billion annually, 75 per cent of the costs of drugs and alcohol on society are due to legal drugs. As such, the provincial medical health office encourages communities to involve users and youth in any discussion about reducing substance abuse and to ask for the public health department's help. Recreational programming and well developed community trail systems can go a long way to providing non-user friendly alternatives and may provide a better focus than substance-specific education programs, particularly for youth, he said. "It may be that there is nothing for kids to do in the evening that is causing part of the problem," Young said. In addition, any effort to target substance abuse must consider the myriad of outside social issues that cause substance use to become abuse. From the mixed messages in alcohol commercials to work done by the McCreary Centre Society which links poverty, sexual, physical and emotional abuse, and aboriginal issues to drug and alcohol use, it is important to consider who needs the efforts most--and why. Of the population that have substance abuse issues, for example, 40 to 50 per cent are also struggling with mental illness. "As a Canadian society we're very goal oriented It's a natural reaction. Here's the problem, let's zoom in on it," he said. "But sometimes when you zoom in on it you have to zoom out again and look at the big picture." For those communities which do choose to focus on educational programming, Young said the message must be well thought out. He cited a crystal meth messaging program based out of Montana as an example of what can go wrong. After spending $5.5 million bombarding local airwaves and newspapers with anti-crystal meth messaging, follow up studies from the Montana meth project reveal the campaign likely did more harm than good. While 10 per cent of those surveyed stated the ads increased their perception that crystal meth is a "great risk" and 30 per cent reported increased perceptions that crystal meth does not make you more attractive, they also found a 50 per cent increase in teens discussing meth use and that parents' perceptions of the likelihood their oldest child was taking meth rose 15 per cent. Unfortunately, the survey also discovered meth use actually rose over the course of the six month advertising campaign from three per cent to five per cent among those 12 to 17 years old and from 12 per cent to 15 per cent among those 18 to 25. Young cautioned those last statistics were generated from a small sample group, but said the project does raise a major concern. If you're going to deliver a message, do the research, get it right and double check with follow up research that can be passed on to other communities, he said. Providing context to local efforts to deal with crystal methamphetamine, Young offered up provincial usage statistics. Of the overdose deaths that occurred in 2004--the latest provincial statistics--only 33 had crystal meth in their blood stream. The average age of the deceased was 38. In fact, the number of deaths due to illicit drug use overall dropped from a peak of 248 in 2000 to 150 in 2004. Work by the McCreary Centre in 2003 shows 6 per cent of Okanagan high school students reported using crystal meth, while just two per cent of students in Vancouver had tried the drug. A myriad of sources record provincial crystal meth usage as anywhere from four to nine per cent among youth. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman