FUNDING NEEDS FOLLOWUP FACILITY

It's a step in the right direction, but is it really enough? Tuesday,
federal Justice Minister and Attorney General Rob Nicholson announced
more than $300,000 over three years would be allocated to improve
addiction support programs and services for youth in conflict with the
law.

The funding will be go to the Community and Correctional Services
division of the Office of the Attorney General and used to implement
the P.E.I. Youth Substance Use and Addiction Strategy.

Referral and assessment procedures, as well as post-treatment relapse
prevention programs, will be developed for the addicted who are in
trouble with the law.

Although the move should be applauded it comes up far too short on
what's actually needed and what those working with drug-addicted youth
have been begging for.

By the time they are committing break, enter and thefts to feed their
addiction, it's obvious the addiction is already out of hand.

Nicholson said his government "is working to reduce the damaging
effects of illicit drugs on our youth and on our communities," when he
made the announcement at the Summerside Youth Centre, the place
drug-addicted youth serve out their sentences.

But, if government is so committed to reducing the effect on the
community and on affected youth, why are they waiting until after the
fact, after people have victimized and damaged property, to work with
these youth?

Work needs to be done to address the issue at the earliest possible
stage.

Education must be improved and started earlier to teach youngsters the
devastating impact of drug use.

And more drug-treatment services, specifically a youth addiction
treatment centre, something proposed by the previous Tory government,
must be erected.

You can put all the dollars and cents into studying the problem and
offering support programs for addicted youth but without a place for
them to go to get proper treatment, close to family support, the
$300,000 investment by the federal government will do very little to
fix the problem.

Let's hope the Province follows the federal government's lead and
finally commits to such a facility and not just a Band-Aid solution to
a problem that's not going away.