GOVERNMENT IS NOT SERIOUS ABOUT TACKLING CRYSTAL METH

VICTORIA - It's nonsense to claim that we're serious about dealing
with crystal meth.

Here in Victoria there is not one detox bed for adult meth addicts.
Not because of a waiting list. The spaces just don't exist.

And that says much more than all the rhetoric about longer jail
sentences and tougher controls on the ingredients needed to make the
drug.

A meth addict who wakes up today, looks at the ruins of her life and
takes the huge step of looking for a place to get clean -- the
critical start to dealing with the addiction -- is on her own.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority has one public residential detox
unit for adults in the Victoria region, with seven beds.

It no longer takes meth addicts, or people on cocaine. The centre now
only accepts people withdrawing from heroin and alcohol. VIHA says
they face bigger health risks.

Meth addicts should detox at home, the authority suggests.

That's ludicrous.

Meth withdrawal may not involve the physical symptoms of alcohol or
heroin, although addicts disagree. But it is hell. The addict fights
depression, paranoia, aggression and, most dangerously, a fierce
craving for the drug. It takes intensive support for someone who is
already a mess to claw through the nightmare.

And what is this "home" that the addicts are supposed to curl up in
while they go through detox? A noisy shelter, full of other addicts,
which requires them to be out on the streets all day? A park, an
alley? A room shared with friends who are still using? No one can
seriously think those are suitable for detox.

The situation is as bizarre for younger addicts. There are five youth
detox beds in the region. They were full until this spring, when VIHA
imposed a strict no-smoking rule. Kids see giving up meth and
cigarettes at once as too much, so beds sit empty and youths abandon
treatment early. The no-smoking rule comes ahead of helping teen meth
addicts quit.

Detox is just the first step. Recovering addicts then face waits of
six weeks or more for a treatment space -- time in which they are at
constant risk of using again.

This isn't an attack on the Vancouver Island Health Authority. The
situation is similar across the province, as health authorities make
service fit funding. Detox and treatment for meth addicts aren't priorities.

It's a judgment that's consistent with the government's priorities.
B.C. has been working on an "integrated strategy" to deal with meth
for about a year. The last update in April did not devote one line to
detox and treatment. The No. 1 issue for people on the front lines --
the lack of help for addicts -- was ignored.

Instead, everyone is talking about enforcement, cheering new higher
maximum sentences for meth dealers, demanding mandatory minimum terms.
They're worried about ways to make it harder to buy the
ingredients.

That's worthwhile. Enforcement will at least push up the cost of the
drug -- now terribly cheap -- as supply tightens and providers build
in a risk premium. Higher cost may deter some potential users.

But we've established, with every drug battle since Prohibition, that
the problem can't be solved by attacking the supply side. If there is
a demand, the market will ensure that there is a supply. We have
targeted the supply side of the heroin market for a decade, and the
drug is more plentiful, powerful and cheaper, and people are still
dying.

When enforcement increases, the criminals in the drug business adjust.
More aggressive police action against marijuana growing operations
resulted in gangs switching to making meth, B.C.'s Organized Crime
Agency reported.

The battle will be won or lost on the demand side. That means
providing the information and skills people need to avoid addiction,
and the help and resources that they need to recover if they do become
ensnared.

And it means reaching out to people while they are using, and helping
them to manage their addiction, choose less damaging drugs and avoid
sickness and crime.

Meth is a bad drug. The risk of quick addiction is high, and the
physical toll terrible.

That means it deserves a real response -- detox and treatment for
people who want and need help.

Until those are available, we can't claim to be serious about crystal
meth.