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."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman