KEYNOTE SPEECH TO HIGHLIGHT REALITIES OF DRUGS IN REGION

Public health officials want to nip drug problems in the bud.

And to help them do so, they've recruited someone who is more than
familiar with the strain illegal narcotics can have on a community.

Sen. Larry Campbell, the former mayor of Vancouver, chief coroner of
B.C. and the subject of the hit TV show Da Vinci's Inquest, will
speak at the Region of Waterloo Community Safety and Crime Prevention
council's continuing series called In The Minds Eye 2006: Issues of
Substance Use in Film and Forum, from 7-9 p.m. Nov. 28 at
Kitchener-Waterloo collegiate (KCI).

Campbell was recently honoured with the 2006 National Public Health
Hero Award for his practical policy application of the Four Pillars
Drug Strategy. During Campbell's tenure as mayor from 2002 to 2005,
North America's first safe injection site was opened in Vancouver.

The keynote speech will close the council's two-month series, which
has reached more than 1,300 people so far, says Michael Parkinson,
co-ordinator of community engagement for the local council.

"We've been drawing a diversity of people," he said. "Medical
professionals, the general public, parents, users ... the list goes
on.

"That was one of the main goals of this series."

The series has investigated a variety of areas relating to substance
use and abuse.

Some topics have included Drug and Alcohol Use: Costs Trends and Local
Conditions; 100 Years of Drugs in Canada: What Lies Behind Us? What Lies
Ahead?; Street Level Sex Trade; Understanding Addiction - The Voices of
People Who Use Drugs; and, just last week, Understanding Crystal
Methamphetamine.

Parkinson said the discussion around crystal methamphetamine -- a
highly addictive hallucinogenic drug that can drive people into
paranoid psychosis -- drew 300 people between three sites throughout
the day.

"Two components were discussed: the production of crystal meth, as
well as the treatment process for those who are addicted to it," he
said.

Parkinson also said the forum tried to put to rest rumours that
nearby Perth County is the crystal meth capital of Canada.

"It's not," he said.

"While there is crystal meth in that area, as there is in this
region, we liken it to a plague of locusts ... it hit the western
provinces, moved east, seemed to skip Ontario, but is showing up more
in Quebec and the eastern provinces."

Nevertheless, he said, education is power over any drug
problem.

And that's what he hopes Campbell's speech will provide.

"He helped craft Vancouver into arguably the most progressive city in
reducing (drug use)," Parkinson said.

"But we have to remember that it's not Vancouver here; our issues are
different."

Campbell will speak on the Four Pillars integrated strategy, which
many sectors of Vancouver coming together to fight drug problems.

"We, at the Region of Waterloo, don't have a position on an
integrated drug strategy," Parkinson said.

"But one thing I can say is that we can't keep up with the calls we
get from parents."

Parkinson said more resources would have to be in place for this
region to adopt a similar strategy.

"More partners would have to step up," he said.

"The private sector should have an interest in the effects drug use
can have ... lost labour, low productivity, accidents."