Tell youth point blank what meth can do

Victoria: Police Link Spread Of Drug To Increase In Frauds, Robberies

It's on the streets and in the schools and it's showing no signs of slowing
down.

Methamphetamine is an "extremely" common problem in B.C.'s capital, says
Acting Sgt. Brad Fraser of the Victoria Police.

"This is the drug we need to go to war on," Fraser says. "A lot of youth
are involved in it and a lot of other crime is associated with it."

Identity thefts, frauds, break-and-enters, robberies, assaults -- the
number of Victoria crimes committed with meth in the background is endless.

Fraser has come across addicts barricaded in rooms, paranoid beyond reason,
wearing bulletproof vests, wielding knives and bats.

In October 2004, police busted a fledgling identity theft and credit card
fraud ring, arresting five teens between the ages of 15 and 19. All were
hooked on crystal meth.

At the Specialized Youth Detox facility, the number of referred youth who
used meth went from 11 per cent in 2000-01 to 63 per cent in 2003-04.

As of February of this year, 143 of the 267 young people looking for help
at the detox centre reported using the drug.

But, says Fraser, meth addiction is not limited to young people.

He knows of strait-laced professionals who've tumbled into the seductive
addiction -- only to emerge and find their families and jobs gone.

Then there's Marshall Smith.

The former ministerial aide was handed a 12-month conditional sentence last
August after he was arrested and charged with trafficking cocaine and
crystal meth in downtown Victoria.

He's since been arrested twice again for drug offences and is finishing up
his sentence behind bars.

Victoria city councillor Rob Fleming, an NDP candidate in the

May 17 provincial election, says the response to the problem of meth has to
be quick and it has to be now.

"The point we hear is 'Don't let the problem get out of hand -- address it
as soon as possible,'" he says.

Fleming is pushing for comprehensive, peer-based education in schools. He
believes young people, the younger the better, need to be told point blank
what meth can do.

"Just say no might be a little bit insufficient," he says.

"I think you have to hammer home that this drug is going to cause you
serious, possibly irreversible, damage to your body."