REPORT ON CRYSTAL METH INFLATES NUMBER OF USERS

A report on crystal meth being presented today to health and justice
ministers from the western provinces and territories contains an error
that inflates the number of users in B.C. by about nine times.

The report, compiled by participants in a three-day summit in
Vancouver last November, says about 190,000 people in B.C. used some
type of amphetamine-type stimulant such as crystal meth in the year
before the survey was done.

In fact, the number reflect those who have used some such substance in
their lifetime.

Tim Stockwell, director of the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C.,
said Thursday the mistake magnifies the real problem.

He said the error occurred because the report incorrectly cited an
analysis done by the Addiction Foundation of Manitoba. That analysis
was based on a survey asking people if they had ever used an
amphetamine-type stimulant in their lifetime, not just in the past
year, as the report stated.

Stockwell said a more accurate estimate -- taken from the 2004
Canadian Addictions Survey -- is that about 22,000, or 0.6 per cent of
B.C. residents, used an amphetamine-type stimulant in the past year,
not 190,000.

And of those people, Stockwell said two-thirds would have used the
substance only once and "most of the amphetamines probably wouldn't
have been crystal meth at all." Dietary pills and Ritalin also fall
into the category of "amphetamine-type stimulants."

Stockwell agrees the use of crystal meth is increasing in B.C., which
is a worrisome trend, but cautioned against panicking about the problem.

"It is important to keep this issue in perspective and not inflate
available estimates to give an exaggerated perception of this
problem," he said in a written statement.

Stockwell concedes the lower figures in the Canadian Addictions Survey
are probably under-estimated because there was a high refusal rate and
the survey was done by phone, meaning it did not reach homeless people
or street kids.

Though the report being presented states clearly that Canada is not in
the midst of a crystal meth crisis, it confirms use of the drug is on
the rise and is spreading across Canada from west to east.