TASK FORCE TO KEEP UP ANTI-METH CAMPAIGN

The Central Okanagan crystal meth task force has started the new year
on a high note.

An educational media blitz will not only continue into 2007, but it
will be monitored for its success rate and further improvements, task
force members learned at the inaugural meeting of the year Tuesday.

Central Okanagan schools received posters, pamphlets, videos and
PowerPoint presentations. Teachers received information during a
professional development day and parents received it during a
provincial parent advisory council conference at The Grand hotel.

Three fourth-year nursing students received high praise from task
force members for their awareness campaign at UBC Okanagan.

Jessica Barker, Mieke Eikenaar and Lianne Jones worked at the Living
Positive Resource Centre for the past year in conjunction with a
political action course at the university.

They organized activities for every day of national Addictions
Awareness Week in November, including showing the 18-minute video
Death by Jib, graphic displays, a guest speaker and a speakers' panel.

"It wasn't just students, but people from the community, public
health nurses, hospital staff, who were interested," said Barker.

They also produced three resource binders for student residences,
plus PowerPoint presentations and bulletin board materials for the
campus health centres at UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College, said Eikenaar.

"It was an absolutely fantastic effort," commented task force
facilitator Carmen Lenihan.

"The outcomes were amazing," added Daryle Roberts, executive director
of the Living Positive Resource Centre, which spearheaded the task
force. "It's great stuff for that age group." The nurses are hoping
other nursing students entering their third and fourth years at UBCO
continue the project.

Provincial authorities believe five per cent of Grade 7-12 students
in public schools have tried crystal meth -- about 500 in the Central
Okanagan. Twenty per cent of those, or about 100, will become addicted.