KLEIN'S WIFE UNVEILS PLAN TO BATTLE DRUG

Time To Fight Back On Crystal Meth, Task Force Report Recommends

EDMONTON -- Two years ago, Stasha Huntingford penned an urgent plea
to Alberta Premier Ralph Klein's intensely private wife, Colleen.

"I knew she cared about what crystal meth was doing to people. I knew
she could help," the 26-year-old Calgary drug counsellor said,
explaining why she wrote to Ms. Klein, who has been one of the
province's most powerful political players during the 14-year tenure
of her husband, which will end later this year when he retires.

During one of her last official appearances yesterday, Ms. Klein
answered the cry for help from Ms. Huntingford and hundreds of others
by delivering a task-force report on how the province plans to battle
crystal methamphetamine, a highly addictive and cheap street drug.

"Meth has been terrorizing Alberta for too long. And it's time for us
to fight back," Ms. Klein, 65, told reporters. She wore a tiny orange
button that read: "Meth sux."

The task force, which the Premier appointed her to lead last October,
made 83 recommendations, including a call for the province and
municipalities to pump more money into treatment and counselling.
There is an immediate request for the province to open up 100 more
detoxification beds and 200 more treatment beds for meth users.

The task force also recommends that provincial and federal lawmakers
crack down on people who either manufacture or sell the amphetamine
made entirely from synthetic and highly toxic ingredients such as
ammonia, paint thinner, ephedrine, battery acid and even Drano.

While there are no accurate figures on how many Albertans are
addicted to crystal meth, front-line workers such as drug counsellors
report the problem is growing. Last year, the Alberta Alcohol and
Drug Abuse Commission paid for 400 to 500 young people to receive
help with their crystal-meth problems.

In recent years, because of its cheap price -- a hit often costs less
than a package of cigarettes -- and accessibility, the drug has been
a major concern for many provinces and police.

Ms. Klein said the task force purposely avoided costing out its
recommendations, but has acknowledged the price tag will be in the
millions. "It is going to be expensive, however, we didn't feel it
was our responsibility to be setting budgets for the various
ministries," she said.

This isn't the first time Ms. Klein, who shuns the media spotlight,
has taken a lead role in advising her husband on pressing public
policy issues. She is often jokingly referred to in Alberta political
circles as Ms. Premier because of her extraordinary influence on the
country's longest-serving premier, whom she married in 1972.

In 2000, she headed a task force for Mr. Klein that released 100
recommendations on how Alberta could support children better. Ms.
Klein, who is Metis, has also worked tirelessly to raise the profile
of aboriginal issues in Alberta.

Mr. Klein has never denied his wife's influence, which in recent
years has privately raised the ire of some provincial Tory Party
members and made her as controversial as her outspoken, folksy husband.

He told a reporter last December that it was Ms. Klein who convinced
him to stay in his job until 2008. (This spring, the party basically
forced him to move up his retirement plans by more than a year when
only 55 per cent of members supported his leadership during a
mandatory secret-ballot review.)

"She said, 'You should serve one more term, there's lots to be done.'
Otherwise I wouldn't have run," Mr. Klein said last year.

Ms. Klein said that she's hopeful the Progressive Conservative
leadership race, which is expected to officially begin today, won't
result in her crystal meth report simply "collecting dust."