SASK. PARTY'S DRUG BILL BUOYED BY VISIT FROM ALBERTA MLA

The Saskatchewan Party had some prominent support Friday as it continued
its efforts to get a bill passed that would help families force
drug-addicted children into treatment facilities.

Mary Anne Jablonski, the Alberta Progressive Conservative MLA who
spearheaded the Alberta legislation that the Opposition's bill is modelled
after, was at the provincial legislature.

Jablonski said she's backing the efforts of the Saskatchewan Party because
the bill empowers parents in the face of a growing problem with drug addiction.

She said she respects NDP Community Resources Minister Joanne Crofford, who
has been reluctant to embrace the Opposition legislation but has been
"pushing the envelope" of the Child and Family Services Protection Act by
having police seize children exposed to drug abuse.

The Alberta bill requires that youths who are addicted to drugs go into
mandatory detox for five days.

"If necessary, an apprehension order can be achieved through going to the
courts, by parents going to the courts. This bill is a tool for parents who
want to help their children. We already have legislation in child welfare
but not everybody is involved in the child welfare system, we have
legislation in the criminal justice system but kids don't want to be
arrested and charged with a crime before they get help. There has to be a
middle ground and the middle ground allows parents to seek help for their
children through the courts," said Jablonski.

Crofford has instructed her department to look at changes to Section 18 of
the Child and Family Services Act that could allow for mandatory treatment.

Currently, the act allows for children under the age of 16 to be
apprehended and returned to the care of either their family or a foster
home or become a ward of the Minister. She expects a report back soon on
the issues of raising the age to 18 and including a provision allowing
mandatory testing for drug-addicted youth would help reduce the problem.

Crofford said early indications are that existing legislation could be
amended to accomplish the same things as the Saskatchewan party bill.

However, she expressed skepticism about the idea of parents going to court
directly to ask that their children be put into mandatory treatment.

"You can't just go to a court without some facts, you can't go without an
assessment, you can't go without some work having been done about the
situation. So unless you want parents to have to go independently to
lawyers to put their case together for them, at this moment in the province
it's child protection workers who put those cases together."

In Saskatchewan, there are no treatment centres at this point set up to
allow mandatory treatment, which Crofford said is also a factor in her
reluctance about the Opposition bill.

The Saskatchewan Party's proposed legislation is part of an overall
Opposition policy over the last year of pushing the NDP government to do
more to combat the growing problem of crystal meth.

On Thursday, Premier Lorne Calvert announced from the Western Premiers
Conference in Lloydminster that he will chair a June meeting in Regina of
health, justice and public safety ministers from Western Canada to discuss
issues around the dangerous and highly-addictive drug.

"I'm very excited about it. I'm very pleased that the premier has listened
to what we've been talking about, he's listened to the parents," said June
Draude, the Saskatchewan Party's point person on crystal meth.

"I hope there's an opportunity for witnesses, for the people who are
involved in the day-to-day work with the children or the young adults that
are abusing this drug ... too often we wait for everything to come up
through the line of bureaucracy to the premier."

In a conference call with reporters Friday, Calvert said he had discussed
the issue of forced treatment with Alberta Deputy Premier Shirley
McClellan. "These are challenging issues as we seek a mechanism by which we
can ensure that families, parents and addicted or affected young people can
get the treatment and get it most effectively," he said.