Pubdate: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 Prince George Citizen Contact: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350 Author: Frank Peebles Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) DECLINE IN METH USE REPORTED The Meth Message Might Be Getting Through. Addictions workers are noticing what they perceive to be a plateau in the use of the highly addictive, highly damaging, inexpensive street drug called crystal methamphetamine. It is a drug that even hardened drug users, top-level policing officials and health-care professionals call particularly nasty. Locally, documentary films have been made about meth, solicitor general John Les held a packed public forum at UNBC on the issue, the RCMP has held officer training sessions on it and the grassroots effort to raise awareness was urgent. "We seem to have seen -- and I am very cautious about this -- that the use of meth has peaked and slightly diminished," said Andrew Burton, Northern Health's drug prevention co-ordinator, one of the front line workers who have expressed this observation. "You don't want to say meth use is on the decline because it could go up again tomorrow, not all the factors are controlled, but we have seen some good things." The attitude of users is the biggest difference, the advocates said, on top of a loud public-awareness campaign. "When you talk to young people on the street, they're saying 'meth: that stuff is f-ed up' which is very different from what we were hearing five or six years ago," Burton said. "A lot of the low-life gang people were selling the drug but they were also selling a story about it. For young people who aren't all that experienced with drug use, they believed it, and before they realized that was a lie they were deeply involved. "Partly, education and awareness is getting out there. Some of that is to do with those of us in our position, but almost all the credit belongs to young people, they aren't stupid and when they see lives fall apart among their friends, they notice." But meth is still a major drug of choice on the city's streets and schoolyards, Burton said, and RCMP Staff Sgt. Tom Bethune agreed. "I wouldn't break out the balloons and celebrate," he said. "One person hooked on it is too many; it is a terrible drug. I'm a little surprised by this, to be honest." He said the main drug Mounties are encountering in their investigations is crack cocaine, some powder cocaine and heroin, but indeed a significant amount of meth is in the local drug system. He doesn't deny a downturn may be in effect, but worries it can go back the other way if only a few simple factors change. "I don't know if it is just a supply thing or a temporary thing, I don't know," Bethune said. "They had a big bust, huge, south of town. (A meth lab capable of producing more than 50 kilograms of meth per month was busted near 100 Mile House in May.) I don't know if that had anything to do with it. You'd think (crooks) could boil up meth faster and cheaper than producing crack." Government and everyday citizens need to invest money and energy into saving youth from addiction well before it happens, in addition to bold follow-up for those who are already addicted, the advocates agreed. Burton said: "We need to address the underlying issues. Ensure people have the opportunities to do things, to achieve things, to be strong, to learn good skills. When you deal with kids who are heavily drug involved, the ones that get lost in their drug use, what you find is a sense of helplessness, that they are being powerlessly carried along by life, they have no hope that their life is going to get any better, they feel like they don't have any value as a person. It is that mindset that brings drugs in. "If we work towards that, so even the most marginalized people feel valued and hopeful, the drug use will go down. They will have better resistance skills. They will have better things to do." - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman