REAL MONEY IS MISSING IN CAMPBELL'S WAR ON METH

VICTORIA - Tough talk on crystal meth from Premier Gordon Campbell,
but hopelessly inadequate action when it comes to funding treatment
for desperate addicts.

"Crystal meth is a dirty, filthy drug and it ruins people's lives
forever," Campbell told the UBCM convention this week, where meth was
one of the top issues.

Then he announced the province's response, a $7-million initiative.
The UBCM gets $2 million to provide $10,000 to communities that want
to start meth programs. Another $3 million is going toward education.
(Which hopefully will be fact-based, without exaggerating the drug's
real risks.)

And $2 million, the premier promised, will be spent on additional
"targeted treatment services and programs, like the Meth Kickers
program in Kamloops, so that we can provide the treatment that people
deserve."

Interesting example. Meth Kickers is an innovative program, with early
success.

But it was created largely out of desperation. Counsellors at the
Phoenix Centre in Kamloops were seeing young meth addicts in terrible
shape, and had no way to help them, and nowhere to send them.

"They put this thing together off the corners of their desks," says
Patrick McDonald, program supervisor at the centre. "It's interesting
that we're being pointed out as leaders when we're barely able to pull
it off."

The treatment is not terribly intensive, relatively few people can be
helped at a time, and the program works best for addicts who still
have some support from family or friends.

And McDonald fears for the young people who complete the program
successfully, but are then thrust back into the same environment that
fuelled their addiction.

It's still a good model. Young people who want to quit meth go through
two weeks of preparation, attending group meetings and getting some
decent meals and rest. Then they go through a five-day detox, and a
four-week "action group" program where they meet and work on the
skills needed to stay off drugs. They make a small start on getting
work, or returning to school, and work on ways of moving beyond the
world of drug use.

Meth Kickers incorporates two other important principles: Harm
reduction and immediate access. Participants aren't required to quit
drinking, or smoking tobacco or marijuana. The goal is to get them off
meth first, and then deal with other substance abuse issues.

And a call for help gets immediate response -- ideally a face-to-face
meeting within 20 minutes, certainly contact within 24 hours.

That's one of the things the UBCM wants, on-demand detox services.
That doesn't have to mean institutional care; for some people with an
appropriate home, daily counselling and support may be all that's required.

But it does mean that when addicts ask for help it must be
available.

It doesn't work that way today in most of the province. Call for help,
and you'll likely be told there's no detox space available. And you'll
get the same response day after day after day.

Here in the Capital Region, there are no adult detox beds for meth
addicts, and five beds for youths. "We have a system in B.C. of kids
lining up for programs and waiting three, four and five months to get
in," McDonald says. In that time they slide deeper into addiction and
other problems.

McDonald is a positive guy -- you have to be in his line of work. He's
pleased at any announcement of more money, and convinced the
politicians want to help.

But the Phoenix Centre -- like its counterparts across B.C. -- lives
on the financial edge. "We're grossly underfunded, in my view," he
says.

It would take $500,000 a year to expand the centre's services, he
says, and set up a residential program to help the most seriously
addicted, or the people dealing with both mental illness and
addiction. That would also allow long-term support. Sending the newly
recovered addicts back to their old life -- joblessness, addicted
friends, damaged families -- is a formula for relapse.

The government can't say how much it would cost to provide the
treatment that's actually needed. If one centre in Kamloops, held up
as a model by the premier, sees a need for $500,000, then figure $15
million as a start for the province.

B.C. has done much of the work needed to ensure the money is spent
effectively, and can easily afford to tackle the addiction problem.

All that's left is the will.