COMMUNITY CO-OPERATION A KEY TO DEALING WITH METH

PRINCE ALBERT -- What prompts an hysterical mother to take a baseball bat
and confront the drug dealers she thinks have been selling to her son?

For one woman, it was the greater fear of losing her child completely to
crystal meth. The woman's son was already hooked on the drug when she
confirmed her worst suspicions.

"I knew that wasn't logical," the woman says of her decision to confront
the dealers.

"It was dumb (but) I'm angry that he had so much potential."

Since confronting those who fed her son's addiction, the woman has lived in
fear for herself and her family, which is why she did not want her name
used for this story. In later days, she would come home to find an axe on
her front lawn and bullets in her mailbox.

The woman's fight to keep her son away from crystal meth, and the struggle
of other parents like her, is one reason a local committee has begun
working together on the issue of drug addiction.

The group -- made up of emergency and police officials, addictions
counsellors, health representatives, business owners and members of local
service groups -- is hoping to create a treatment facility that includes
drug and alcohol prevention, long-term detox programs, recovery services
and community integration resources to help addicted youth kick their
habits for good.

As part of its work, the group has circulated a petition calling on the
province to make it legal for parents to force youth into treatment for at
least 28 days.

Linda Nosbush, the group's chairwoman, says the committee wants to create a
comprehensive set of services to not only treat those already addicted to
drugs such as crystal meth, but provide enough support to eventually break
the hold drugs have on youth.

While it is not looking to create an entirely new set of treatment
services, some areas of service are lacking, Nosbush says.

The committee is working on a plan that includes expanded drug awareness
programming, more consistent and accessible information, more treatment
beds for youth and more support for families, as well as a social safety
net to help re-integrate former addicts into the community.

Only 12 treatment beds in the province are currently designated for youth.

"It really is a social development plan," says Nosbush, an early learning
consultant who is also the community research co-ordinator for a local
project called Understanding the Early Years and who is working on a crime
prevention strategy in Prince Albert.

Nosbush says the committee's work is a personal priority as much as a
public one. She says it takes an entire community to raise a healthy child.

"Little people really need us to protect them," she says.

"And as adults, we probably have not done such a good job of that ... This
is a real call for adults to be something different for our children."

Nosbush says those on the committee are willing to work together to help
addicted youth here and across the province, if necessary. That's something
that hasn't always happened in the past.

"Prince Albert is courageous because it's already named its issue," she says.

"If you just feel the energy in this room, you can really sense that people
have a sense of hope."

The addictions committee is hoping to fill the gaps in existing treatment
services while also keeping addicts out of the justice system, says John
Swystun, a Prince Albert city councillor.

Swystun, who also acts as chairman of the local race relations committee
that oversees the addictions committee, says it is reassuring to see the
plan get so much community support.

"It can't help but make you want to come on board," he says.

The addictions committee has been working since early this year to come up
with a proposal for a multi-faceted treatment facility. Members of the
group plan to present their strategy to the provincial government at the
end of this month.

Prince Albert City Police Chief Dale McFee says crystal meth is a
significant issue in the community.

The police force has already been active in radio campaigns and other
community awareness programs, including the addictions committee, to fight
the drug's growing threat.

Officers have also stepped up drug enforcement in the city. But McFee says
more still needs to be done to combat drug addiction.

"We're not experts in rehab, but we are experts in reality," McFee says.

Graham Addley, a Saskatoon MLA who was recently appointed legislative
secretary to the premier on substance abuse prevention and treatment,
acknowledges there are gaps in current treatment programs.

But he says any new treatment plans must fit into a provincial strategy as
well so that anyone can access services, regardless of where they live.

And Addley cautioned against focusing all drug treatment initiatives solely
on the crystal meth issue. More people use substances such as alcohol,
cocaine and marijuana, he says.

"We need to make sure we co-ordinate our efforts and spend the money
wisely," Addley says.

"We don't have to choose crystal meth over the other ones, but we have to
make sure we have a wide approach."

In April, the province released several recommendations in response to
Addley's work, including a 24-hour addictions counselling line for drug
users and their families.

Other provincial initiatives to target drug abuse through prevention,
treatment, education and a reduction of supplies used to make the drug
include more brief detox services, a mobile drug treatment vehicle for
northern Saskatchewan communities and a public awareness campaign.

Saskatchewan Health also says it will begin to improve existing in-patient
treatment services for youth. Addley says his full report on the issue
should be out in the next few weeks.

After fighting for more than a year to keep her son away from drugs, the
woman's struggle is still not over.

The nightmare, as she terms it, started when calls began coming in from
people she didn't know and her son started having trouble getting up for
school and keeping up his grades. Still, it would be a while before she and
her husband really knew why their son had changed.

"We noticed nothing initially," the woman says. "(But) it seemed as soon as
we knew, he went downhill immediately."

The woman was devastated to discover her child was using crystal meth. She
had already been randomly testing him for marijuana since he was 16 using
specially-designed urine test strips, and had specifically warned him about
the dangers of crystal meth.

The first test for crystal meth proved to be negative. But another test a
few days later was not.

It would be months before her son would admit that first test was actually
dog urine taken from snow in the family's back yard.

"That's not the son I raised," she says.

Her son has since moved out of the province and has been trying to stay
away from crystal meth. However, he recently relapsed again and is now in
an out-of-province treatment facility.

The woman says her son's last clash with crystal meth scared him. She hopes
treatment will work, although she knows he will deal with the temptation to
do drugs for the rest of his life.

"I'm not ready to give up on him, but I'm not going to enable him," she says.

Having faced the nightmare of drug abuse, the woman has begun helping
others cope with the same pain she endured. She attends a support group and
offers her phone number to anyone who needs to talk.

"It's at midnight that the crazies really set in, (when) you're alone with
your thoughts," she says.

And while she initially questioned her ability to parent, and tried to
punish those she thought were responsible, the mother now says there is no
one to blame for her son's choice to do drugs.

"You can't cry them out, you can't buy them out of it," she says.

"You get to a point where you know you've done all that you can do ... Your
child has choices to make."