STUDENTS HEAR MESSAGE ABOUT METH

The only people who can push drugs out of schools are students,
that's part of the message the Crystal Meth Society of B.C. is
delivering in Prince George all week.

The society is talking to students at several local schools about
meth as well as addiction in general. With accurate information
students can protect themselves and their friends, said society
president Mark McLaughlin, father of someone who once lived under the
meth spell.

The presentations will reach more than 2,000 local students by the
end of the week at PGSS, Kelly Road secondary, Carrier Sekani Family
Services, Duchess Park secondary, College Heights secondary, the
storefront alternative program and John McInnis junior secondary.
There were even more requests for their presentation and they are
already making plans to return.

"It tells us there is a large and urgent interest in this subject in
Prince George, although I do not for a moment consider this unique to
P.G.," said McLaughlin. "I think almost every town in B.C. has a
similar feeling about meth."

The students learn facts like what meth is, how it is made, what it
does to a person's body, brain and behaviour, what the symptoms are
among one's friends, what its addiction looks like, and how to get
out if you're in, McLaughlin said.

This seems like a perfect time for the presentation considering how
concerned many in the public were following the teen dance event at
CN Centre last week that had emergency responders active with drug
and alcohol incidents.

Some of those who attended said the drug "ecstasy" was prevalent but
McLaughlin had a sharp warning about that synthetic narcotic.

"In B.C. studies, 70 per cent or more of the ecstasy seized by police
tests hot for meth, so it is a huge chance that if you're using
ecstasy you are also unknowingly taking meth. And it is also cut into cocaine."