FEDS INJECT FUNDS INTO DRUG PROGRAM

OTTAWA -- A new national program designed to prevent youth from using
drugs received a $10 million cheque from the federal government on
Wednesday.

The money is slated to go toward the Drug Prevention Strategy for
Youth, a new five-year plan led by the Canadian Centre on Substance
Abuse, the government-supported national agency for substance abuse.

The strategy will target youth between the ages of 10 and 24 and will
have several goals: to reduce the number of youth using illegal drugs,
to delay and deter the onset of drug use, to reduce the frequency of
drug use, and to reduce multiple drug use among those young people who
do use.

The funding comes out of the government's $64 million National
Anti-Drug Strategy, launched last fall. Part of that plan includes a
two-year mass media campaign by Health Canada aimed specifically at
youth.

Health Minister Tony Clement, speaking at the Ottawa-based CCSA on
Wednesday, said there hasn't been a "serious or significant" anti-drug
campaign in almost 20 years, and one is long overdue. Clement said the
CCSA's national prevention strategy is key to the government's
anti-drug plan.

"This project will reach out to young people and will provide them and
their parents the plain truth on the harms of illicit drug use," said
Clement, who was joined at the announcement ceremony by Public Safety
Minister Stockwell Day and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

"We will discourage young people from thinking there are 'safe'
amounts, or 'safe' drugs. And we will highlight the fact that, for
young people, having clear and unimpaired judgment is a safety issue,"
the health minister said, according to the text of his prepared remarks.

The CCSA's strategy will complement Health Canada's media blitz with
the creation of a new consortium made up of media corporations,
marketing and advertising agencies, youth agencies and parent groups.
It will reinforce many of the messages in Health Canada's campaign,
but on a wider platform, and it also will tailor messages to high-risk
populations.

The CCSA and its partners also plan to develop national standards for
the design and delivery of school-centred and community-based drug
abuse prevention programs. A database will be created that will
include existing programs and resources that meet those standards and
it will be accessible by communities, schools, families and others who
want to implement programs.

Several new partnerships and bodies also will be created through the
strategy, including a National Advisory Group on Youth Prevention.