SCHOOL-BUS DRUG BOAST TRIGGERS INVESTIGATION

A nine-year-old boy on the school bus triggered an investigation in
Salmon Arm when he told his mother that crystal meth was aboard that day, too.

He heard a junior high student claiming to have the drug and when he
got home, he asked his mom what meth is.

The alarming question set off a flurry of phone calls to the RCMP and
triggered a school district investigation.

The boy's claim couldn't be proven, but it couldn't be disproven
either, said Salmon Arm Secondary School principal Greg Kitchen.

Regardless of whether meth was on the bus that day, Kitchen says the
highly addictive drug has arrived on the shores of Shuswap Lake.

"What I'm hearing from students is the profile, the prevalence of
crystal meth in our area is starting to grow," said Kitchen, at the
forefront of anti-meth initiatives in Salmon Arm.

The Centre for Addictions Research of B.C. reported in June that an
estimated 22,000 British Columbians have used amphetamine-type drugs
in the past year and that about 7.3 per cent have tried an
amphetamine at least once in their lifetimes.