NDP FINALLY MOVING TOWARD A CRYSTAL METH SOLUTION

It took time, tears, anger and help and pressure from all sides. It
took one tragic story after another being rolled out on a carpet of
human despair. It took incredible courage of parents to sit down and
talk freely of the filthy drug that was ruining the lives of their
children and fracturing family lives. But, now, at long last, the
impact of The Nightmare on Crystal Meth Street is no longer spiralling
out of control, lost in an atmosphere of ignorance. Now, it is getting
paid attention to.

A month or so ago, the NDP government acted almost as if it wasn't
clearly aware of the problems that crystal meth was reportedly
creating in our province. Letters to politicians from parents were
greeted with virtually no response indicating that action would be
coming, and that something was going to be done. Parents of children
younger than 17 years old tried to tell the government of the growing
damage that crystal meth was inflicting on their children.

But not until the last month or so, when the pressure on the
government came from all sorts of different segments of society was
there any kind of acknowledgement from the government that it was
recognizing how serious crystal meth's hold on a growing number of our
young people appears to be becoming.

No longer are the parents of these kids hearing only that the
government is studying the issue. When governments tell you they are
studying something, it means that's all they're doing.

But now Premier Lorne Calvert has taken the whole matter of crystal
meth to heart and when he headed up to Lloydminster yesterday for a
meeting of Western Canadian premiers, he said he would bring to the
table the issue of crystal meth.

He wants to know what other provinces are doing to deal with this most
tragic of drugs and he wants the premiers to present a united front in
battling the drug and convincing the federal government that more must
be done on a national scale.

Meth has been around for years. A form of it was used during the war
to help pilots stay awake and alert on long bombing missions. Long
haul truck drivers have used it. When it became crystal meth, it
swiftly reached epidemic proportions among the gay community in the
United States. The use of the drug increases sexual desire and
resulted in unprotected sex among homosexual men, which, in turn,
reportedly led to an increase in cases of HIV. But not until young
people began using the drug with devastating results did it begin to
attract the kind of attention that it has in, for example,
Saskatchewan.

Use of the drug is reportedly widespread throughout the United States
and Canada and the stories of wrecked lives and deaths because of it
have become common. But there remains much that is unknown about the
drug and, especially, how to treat those addicted to it. Unlike
alcohol or cocaine, crystal meth is different than most addictions in
that the user is not addicted to any specific drug as much as they are
addicted to the "high" itself. Thus, treating crystal meth addictions
the way you would treat an alcoholic will not necessarily work. Much
has to be done in the way of treating crystal meth abuse and
establishing clinics exclusive to crystal meth users.

Laws also must be changed to increase the penalty for making crystal
meth, for selling it and for using it. Law enforcement agencies must
get the drug at its source, destroying the labs where it is made. They
must also unleash an all-out war against those who traffic in the
drug. And a huge education program must be undertaken for young people.

There is no doubt that what Calvert is doing is a major step in the
right direction. But it's really just the beginning. There is so much
more that must be accomplished and it has to be done in the shortest
amount of time. Every single day in this country, more and more young
people are reportedly being caught in the crystal meth trap, and it is
a trap that is extremely difficult to escape from.

The battle has only just begun. But, at least it has begun.