GET TOUGH WITH METH DEALERS, PREMIERS SAY

Sentences Should Be The Same As Those For Selling Cocaine, Heroin

LLOYDMINSTER, Alta. -- The federal government should make jail sentences
for dealing methamphetamine as harsh as they are for cocaine and heroin to
stop the addictive drug from destroying more lives, western premiers said
Thursday at their annual meeting.

Alberta Deputy Premier Shirley McClellan joined the other leaders in
demanding Ottawa control sales of the chemicals used to make meth, and
signalled her province will do so later this year.

"Our youth are in really quite grave danger" from this drug, said
McClellan, filling in for an ill Premier Ralph Klein.

"Because it doesn't seem to be perceived publicly as such a serious drug
and addiction, where in fact it should be classed as absolutely the worst."

The courts conventionally slap cocaine or heroin dealers with sentences two
or three times as long as meth dealers.

Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert will host a national gathering next
month of provincial health, justice and public safety ministers to develop
cross-provincial strategies to prevent the use of meth and treat those
afflicted by it.

"We feel an absolute responsibility to send a strong message to all
Canadians that trafficking in these materials with their damage to people
and their addictive components must have at minimum a sentence equal to
trafficking cocaine," Manitoba Premier Gary Doer said.

"And we are all committed to taking leadership to protect our ... citizens
from these kinds of abuses."

Meth wasn't supposed to be on the agenda, but it became a top item after
what McClellan described as an "intense" closed-door debate between the
premiers and three territorial leaders.

Crystal meth, once obscure in the drug world, has become an increasingly
popular drug in the past decade, both in rural and urban areas. It is
cheap, easy to produce, and has a prolonged and extreme high.

Its ability to cause brain damage, and its heightened addictiveness have
turned it into a growing scourge across Western Canada, as well as the
United States.

Northwest Territories Premier Joe Handley said meth has not yet spread
north of the Prairies, and northern leaders want to keep it that way.

Manitoba, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta have all taken
measures to combat meth use, including increased policing to target
organized crime, which is enmeshed in the drug trade.

In Alberta, a private member's bill before the legislature would see the
province limit the sale of cough syrup and other pharmaceuticals that
produce meth. McClellan said the government would back it during the fall
session.