GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED PARENTS AND USERS OF CRYSTAL METH

The filthy drug that wrecks the lives of young people, the drug that robs
our children of their health and their minds and their futures, continues
to pump its deadly way down the corridors of our schools and into our
homes. The Nightmare on Meth Street continues to breathe its treachery into
our society. The cries of anguish from parents whose lives have been
twisted and tormented by what crystal meth has done to their children are
now being heard more than they ever have.

And adding to the horror of it all is the indifference that the people who
are in a position to do something about it seem to be showing. It is almost
as if a shrug of the shoulders will do.

The parents of kids who have gone through, who continue to go through, the
agony of crystal meth addiction are coming forward more and more with their
stories. They are simply pleading for help to get this drug off the
streets, to make it hard on the dealers who traffic it, to clamp down on
the ease with which the ingredients for crystal meth can be purchased. You
have only to sit down with some of these parents, as I have, and listen to
their stories, and watch their tears flow, and listen to their voices break
as they tell their stories to feel your stomach tighten and your heart
sink. It is overwhelming. I have heard the story of the 17-year-old girl
who was a top student, then found herself in the clamps of crystal meth and
became a shadow of what she once was. She became an 84-pound child lost in
a world nobody should ever enter.

I have heard the stories of the children who lash out in terribly foul
language and sometimes violence at those who love them most. I have heard
the stories of parents somehow finding within themselves the ability to
endure these attacks and continue to push on with a resolve to get their
children away from this filthy drug.

Crystal meth is a cheap high. It costs very little to buy the drug, and the
recipes to make it can easily be found on the Internet. Its ingredients can
easily be purchased in stores throughout every city. It is said to be the
fastest growing drug in North America, a favourite of homosexuals, and the
incidents of HIV are increasing rapidly within that community. Crystal meth
provides incredible highs, increased sexual desire, and like every drug,
perhaps even more than most, it is a drug that has no conscience. It is
easily available everywhere in Regina, in bars, on the street, in drug
houses. Bar travellers are warned to never take their eyes off their drinks
because there is the chance they will be spiked with crystal meth. It has
resulted in teenagers being killed. And it is a hard drug to get off of
because of the high it brings. It's said the drug itself is not addictive,
that there is nothing in the drug like nicotine or alcohol, that can lead
to an addiction. The addiction with crystal meth is to the high itself.

Life becomes hell for the crystal meth user, and for their parents and for
their friends. Users will stop at nothing to get money to buy the drug,
some even resorting to stealing steaks from the freezer and selling them
for meth money.

The provincial government does not get it. This week, the Regina Board of
Police Commissioners asked the federal and provincial governments to
increase their programs in dealing with crystal meth. They want the
governments to stop the spread of crystal meth, from making it illegal to
selling the ingredients used in making the drug, introducing programs in
schools, and to bring down tougher laws against the manufacturing and
trafficking in crystal meth, and more and improved rehabilitation centres.

The provincial government reacted in a shameful way to this call for help.
A few months ago, it brought forward its strategy to fight crystal meth,
the program receiving nothing but criticism from virtually every corner.
The experts said the NDP's program failed to recognize the difference
between crystal meth and other drugs. Health Minister John Nilson said this
week that he welcomed the interest shown by the Regina Board of Police
Commissioners. It was almost a shrug of the shoulders kind of reaction, a
cold indifference, from a government that suffers no embarrassment in
acting the way it does.

If the health minister wants to know why he and his government should be
moving swiftly to chase this drug out of our province, he should call me. I
can arrange for him to sit down with the parents of some of these children
and he can listen to their stories for himself. This government does need
to hear the ache of a need for more studies. Action is needed and it is
needed now. The reach of this drug expands every day, and the government
sits back in its cocoon and watches it happen, oblivious to the realty of
the horror that is being played out in homes through Saskatchewan. That in
itself is frightening.