NEW DRUG-TREATMENT CENTRE OFFERS RAY OF HOPE FOR B.C. ADDICTS

Last week, 18-year-old Lauren Gill described her terrible ordeal as a
teenager in Vancouver, hooked on a life of drugs and crime: "I was
like a bird with no wings."

Gill was telling her story at the public announcement of a long-term
residential centre for young people suffering from serious addictions.
It will be the first of its kind in this province.

A great barrier to B.C. youths wishing to free themselves from drug
and alcohol addictions has been the almost total lack of long-term
treatment facilities available to them.

Across the province, only 158 out of a total of 1,038 treatment beds
are exclusively for young people. And even these are limited to detox
and short-stay patients.

Concerned parents therefore will welcome with open arms news of the
centre, which is the result of long negotiations between concerned
community agencies and the provincial government.

Seven years ago, prompted by a radio interview he had heard, lawyer
Peter Spencer told colleagues at the Central City Foundation, a
100-year-old Vancouver charity, that "something had to be done" about
the growing problem of teenage addictions.

Within a year, the foundation had acquired for around $500,000 the
former Similkameen Adventure Ranch, a 23-hectare spread near Keremeos.
The foundation will be seeking $6 million to rebuild the site in time
for a scheduled opening next summer. It's a fundraising campaign we
urge all to support.

Health Minister George Abbott has already shown commendable good sense
in committing the provincial government to paying the operating costs
of about $2.4 million a year.

At the outset, the centre will have accommodations for around 42
people, girls and boys aged from 14 to 24. To qualify, they must be
able to show a willingness to fight their addictions and be prepared
to spend from six months to a year in residence.

The centre will be run by the Portage Program for Drug Dependencies,
which has earned rave reviews for its success in other parts of Canada.

And Lauren Gill, who attended a Portage program in Quebec, gave
powerful testimony on its behalf, describing a regimen that not only

ended her addictive habits but gave her a whole new sense of
self-worth.

From Grief to Action, a group formed by parents of addicts, has also
played an important role in helping bring the centre to our province.

In a week of otherwise grim news, this was a brilliant ray of hope for
troubled teens.

What do you think? Leave a brief comment, name and town at:
604-605-2029, fax: 604-605-2099 or e-mail: provletters@png.canwest.com