ADDICTION EXPERTS EYE NATIONAL STRATEGY TO TREAT DRUG ABUSE

OTTAWA -- Cheryl Peever was battling cocaine addiction and depression
when, on the verge of suicide, she went to her family doctor for help.

"She didn't know what to do," Ms. Peever recalled in an interview
from Toronto where she now works for the Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health.

On the cocaine use, Ms. Peever said the well meaning but out-of-depth
doctor advised, "Well, just stop."

It took more than six months of phone calls to navigate an addiction
treatment system that's still baffling for many family physicians,
Ms. Peever said. She finally got help through Cocaine Anonymous.

That was almost 16 years ago, and Canada still has no national
treatment system to set standards, guide front-line doctors or rank
funding priorities.

Addiction experts have launched a cross-Canada effort to change that.
They will gather specialists, policy advisers and lawmakers to draft
a treatment model by March, 2008, that they hope governments will fund.

"Most people with a substance use problem don't get help," said
Patrick Smith, head of addiction psychiatry at the University of
British Columbia and a key organizer of the national strategy effort.

Many provinces want to invest more in the area but need expert advice
on how best to do it, Dr. Smith said.

The stakes are huge.

A study released last year by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse
tallied the public cost of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use at
almost $40-billion a year. That includes missed work, disability and
treatment costs.

Conservatives promised during the last election to crack down on
traffickers and introduce a national drug strategy. But there was
little mention of prevention, harm reduction or treatment efforts.

A spokesman for Health Minister Tony Clement said yesterday that work
on the new strategy is well under way.

It "will put greater emphasis on programs that reduce abuse of
illegal drugs and help Canadians live healthier and safer lives,"
Erik Waddell said.

Addiction specialists will be watching closely to see whether the
Tory get-tough approach on drugs will be balanced with efforts to
reduce demand.

Critics have blasted Ottawa's past efforts to wage war on drugs for
being too heavy on law enforcement and too light on prevention and treatment.

A report published last week in the HIV/AIDS Policy and Law Review
underscored that point. It used access-to-information and government
website data to assess how Ottawa doles out $245-million a year to
combat drug use.

The study found that the lion's share of the cash, 73 per cent, went
to policing, with just 14 per cent spent on treatment, 7 per cent on
research and 3 per cent each for harm reduction, such as clean needle
exchanges, and prevention.

Rather than curbing drug use, such crackdown-based approaches "often
exacerbate, rather than reduce, drug-related harm," the CCSA study concluded.

Gail Czukar of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health says
addiction is everywhere but still sometimes hidden.

"I think every one of us has someone in our family, close to us,
friends, people we work with, who have substance use issues. . . .

"It doesn't have the acceptability it needs to have in order for
people to overcome their substance use problems and have more positive lives."

Ms. Peever experienced that stigma when she reached out for help. She
hopes a national strategy that focuses not just on reduction -- but
also on prevention and treatment -- will guide others.

"I get so many calls from parents, relatives or friends who say,
'I've got this person I'm worried about and I don't know what to do
about it. Where do I start?'

"Even for someone who knows the system, sometimes it's hard."