DRUG ADDICTION COSTING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS

The fight against drugs comes at a huge cost, but it's not even close
to what the damage costs are when it comes to drug addiction.

Staff Sergeant Ian Sanderson, the RCMP Drug Awareness Coordinator was
in Spirit River last week to talk to Central Peace area school kids
during the day before closing out the evening with a talk about drug
use to parents and community members.

"It costs us about $3 billion a year for the damage that's caused by
alcohol and tobacco in Alberta and nationally we're looking at about
$48 billion it costs the Canadian economy for illicit drug use," said
Sanderson. That's why he says the argument can't be made to legalize
and tax drugs because the province doesn't collect $3 billion in
taxes from alcohol and tobacco. "It doesn't really matter what the
drug is, it's the addiction that is the issue," noted Sanderson. "For
every person that suffers from addiction, it's said they affect seven
people in their circle of influence -- their family, friends and
co-workers. With meth, it's probably 25 people a single user affects
because of the very high crime rate associated with it."

Still, alcohol and tobacco are the biggest addiction problems in the
country, with marijuana a close third.

Sanderson noted that we are a very stimulant society and cocaine is
by far the number one stimulant drug in Canada, whether it be in the
powder form or crack cocaine. Some experts are saying that meth is
starting to overtake cocaine as the number one stimulant drug in
North America, but Sanderson said it is not a huge problem, yet. "Of
school aged children, only about one percent are using it," he said.
"But the problem with meth is when you're using it, school is not an option.

You just can't function in a school environment. They should do their
survey in the back alleys and under bridges where the school dropouts
hang out. Then, the number would probably be between six and 10
percent of society using meth."

Sanderson feels that this drug addiction with meth is 100 percent
preventable and if we act upon it now, we will save ourselves an
awful lot of grief that we see in other countries where meth has been
around longer.

Meth first arrived in North America in late 1989 in San Diego and has
caused numerous problems throughout the United States and is starting
to in Canada. But Sanderson doesn't think it has reached epidemic
proportions yet. "It's not out of control, particularly here in
Alberta but it is something we definitely have to be concerned about
and deal with it properly.

But to overblow it, we run the risk of people saying 'wait a minute,
it's really not that bad, those people don't know what they're
talking about', then we lost the important part of the message,"
stated Sanderson.

And that message is that it is a highly addictive and powerful drug
that affects more than just the user. The war on this drug is
winnable and Sanderson noted that back in 2002, there were three
communities that formed a drug awareness program to deal with meth
and develop a strategy to save their community from the effects of
this drug on kids and adults alike.

Now, in 2006, there are 58 communities that have a drug strategy.

Part of that strategy is to prevent kids from starting on drugs,
while another part is getting them off their dependency of drugs.
What they are finding out is that the meth addictiveness is way worse
than any other kind of drug out there. "The euphoria lasts anywhere
from five to 30 minutes, which is way longer than cocaine.

The high lasts between four and 16 hours and binges can go anywhere
from three to 15 days and in that time, they are using it constantly
and they will not eat and they will not sleep.

Then when they stop, they crash hard for up to three days where all
they'll do is sleep," said Sanderson.

The physical withdrawal of meth has signs of depression and
crabbiness, but it's the psychological withdrawal that is extremely
long. A few years ago, it was felt to get over the cravings of meth,
it would take between 30 and 90 days. Now, some experts say 180 days,
while others say up to one year before users get over their real
intense cravings and roller coaster of emotions. "When addicts come
out of treatment, they need a lot of support to stay off the drugs,"
said Sanderson. "They'll need up to two years of counselling and
support to get over a hard core meth addiction which is way longer
than other drugs."