COST TO COMMUNITY IS HIGH

Crank, super ice, tina, glass, and jib.

Those are just some aliases the drug methamphetamine, better known as
crystal meth, goes by.

And Thursday night hundreds of Abbotsford residents of all ages and
backgrounds came together to unmask the dangers of the drug at a
community forum on crystal meth at Matsqui Centennial Auditorium.

Parents, grandparents, youth, and experts heard about and discussed
the consequences of crystal meth addiction, and took away tools for prevention.

Mayor George Ferguson and John Les, minister of public safety, spoke
at the forum, as did a panel of experts on crystal meth, including
addictions specialist and author Dr. Gabor Mate; Angela Marshall,
therapist with Fraser House Alcohol and Drug Outpatient Society; Sean
Spear of Impact Youth Addition/Prevention Services; a recovering
crystal meth user; a provincial court judge; and police, school
district and Fraser Health representatives.

All the speakers agreed on the dangers of the drug if not on the best
methods to deal with it.

"Crystal meth is extremely cheap to buy and make, but the cost to the
community is immeasurable, and we're paying dearly for it," said Les
at the start of the evening.

To highlight the dangers the drug posed for youth, He cited a survey
of four B.C. school districts involving 13,000 children where eight
per cent of youth in grades six to 12 had reported trying crystal meth in 2005.

"It's not a drug but in fact a poison," said Marshall during her talk
about the health risks of crystal meth, which can contain bleach,
battery acid, anti-freeze and even rat poison.

One of the most compelling speakers of the night was a former young
addict named Jocelyn who detailed the years she lost to crystal meth
and drove home the message society mustn't abandon addicts.

Mate emphasized -- to prevent children from being drawn to crystal
meth and to help those who have been seduced by it -- adults need to
be more than authority figures but rather "attachment figures."

All adults -- whether they be teachers, doctors, parents or police --
need to be caring, nurturing supportive and non-judgemental, so kids
can develop appropriate and positive attachments with their elders.

The session closed with a question and answer period to give people
attending the forum the opportunity to ask panel members for more
information, exemplifying what the minister of safety had said
earlier in the evening.

"When we arm ourselves with information we are far more capable of
taking action and taking the drug off our streets, out of our schools
and our communities."

For more information on crystal meth visit the Ministry of Public
Safety website www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/crystalmeth/pdf/MethFacts.pdf