METH ADDICTION FIGHT WILL COST ALBERTANS MILLIONS

Alberta must spend several million dollars to keep youths off crystal
meth and treat addicts, a government report will say next month.

Premier Ralph Klein's task force on crystal methamphetamine will
recommend the province set up more elaborate treatment programs and a
broad education campaign, says Mary Anne Jablonski, MLA for Red Deer
North and the lone politician on the 12-member force led by the
premier's wife, Colleen Klein.

"I think that the most controversial thing about the recommendations
will be the cost," Jablonski said Tuesday.

Dan MacLennan, president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees
and another task force panellist, said that cost will likely total
more than $10 million.

After several months of provincewide consultations, the task force
recommendations will call for more police officers dedicated to
busting dealers and preventing the highly addictive and dangerous
drug from reaching youths' hands.

MacLennan said the exact costs and recommendations will be finalized
later this month and likely released in September. "Things like
treatment facilities or increasing treatment facilities, that quickly
costs large amounts of money."

Since Klein has promised to retire as premier next month, the report
will likely come out in the thick of the Progressive Conservative
leadership race. Responsibility for dealing with it will fall to
Klein's successor.

Jablonski and MacLennan suggested the task force may call for more
forced treatment for meth-addled youth and for terms longer than the
five-day court-ordered detox program that began last year.

"The kids themselves said that's not long enough," MacLennan said.

A plan for longer mandatory youth treatment, proposed by Jablonski in
a private member's bill last year, was halted after warnings it would
violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

More than a dozen young

Albertans were sent for the five-day session in July, the program's
first month.

The premier and his wife have said they hope strong action in the
fight against meth's destructive chemical stew would be a crowning
part of the Klein legacy.

"No human being should be putting fertilizer and Drano and iodine,
all mixed together with a little ephedrine, into their system,"
Colleen Klein said last year. She said she wants "to make sure those
little eight- and 10-year-olds never, ever, ever go near it."

The task force will look at some successful solutions to tackling
meth use, such as

Hinton's door-to-door awareness campaign and Drayton Valley's police
focus on meth and meth-related crime. The federal government will be
asked to restrict sales of some of the products used to make the drug.