WESTERN PREMIERS FEAR CRYSTAL METH SCOURGE

Stiffer Sentences Wanted for Traffickers and Producers

LLOYDMINSTER, Alta. -- Ottawa 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
yesterday 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 causes a prolonged and extreme
high.

In Vancouver, hundreds of people showed up last night for the last
of The Province's forums on the dangers of crystal meth.

The event was held at John Oliver Secondary School and featured Kerry
Jackson, whose son committed suicide after a three-year addiction to
crystal meth.

The Province sponsored forums in Victoria, Kamloops and Surrey as part
of an effort to highlight the perils of crystal meth. The drug is
killing more people every year.