CRYSTAL METH ANONYMOUS GROUP LOOKS TO HELP SOUTHERN ALBERTA ADDICTS

FORT MACLEOD -- Pat M. has seen firsthand the crystal meth problem in
Fort Macleod.

Walking down the street, he's seen people light up their pipes,
oblivious anyone is watching.

"It's shocking and I've been in the addictions field for a long time," he says.

Now a program facilitator at the Foothills Centre, Pat once knew
addiction from the other side for much of his life.

"I was the last to realize that I was an addict, an alcoholic and a
compulsive gambler," he says.

"I did anything and everything, and that included gambling as well.
Oddly enough, it was the gambling that took me down."

While Pat didn't do crystal meth, he did use heroin and prescription
medication, along with drinking and gambling.

He used to say he wasn't an alcoholic if he'd never gotten thrown out
of the Cecil in Calgary and not an addict if he didn't shoot the
veins in his arms. To keep his pledge, he just avoided the Cecil and
was thrown out of many other bars and he'd inject drugs into other
parts of his body.

Pat knows the games addicts play but he says anyone who finds
themselves having to lie about behaviour, or the money they use for
it, should have some red flags come up for them.

Pat has been clean for almost 10 years thanks to a variety of 12-step
programs, with only one brief early relapse.

Now he hopes others can find the strength he has found with a new
Crystal Meth Anonymous group starting in Fort Macleod.

The group is the first anonymous group for crystal meth in Fort
Macleod. There are other anonymous groups for crystal meth in
Edmonton and Leduc and larger cities, such as Vancouver and Toronto.

The program is based on the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program and
will use a lot of the same literature and structure. Pat has
organized the group as part of his work at the Foothills Centre.

"Basically in a nutshell, it's about recognizing there is a problem
and recognizing that there is a solution and then just being willing
to give it a whirl," he says.

The first open meeting of the Crystal Meth Anonymous group will be
held Saturday at 8 p.m. in the boardroom of the Foothills Centre in
Fort Macleod.

Pat says it will be open to addicts, friends, as well as family and
parents concerned about their children. People from Lethbridge and
other southern Alberta communities are also welcome to attend.

He says often it can help family members understand what their loved
ones are going through with their addiction by attending one of the meetings.

"It's really tough, (because of) the denial, to get addicts in here,
in small towns specifically. People think they can't go there because
people will know I have a problem," he says.

But he says the spiritual foundation of the program is anonymity,
meaning members will only go by first names and nothing talked about
will be discussed outside the meeting.

"We have a saying. It is whom you see here, what you hear here, when
you leave here, let it stay here," he says.

He expects the group will have a few growing pains at first but
thinks it will become a fixture of the community and that similar
groups will likely start in other parts of southern Alberta.

"What really makes these meetings work is by sharing yourself it may
help another addict," he says.

The meeting will consist in doing some readings, going through the 12
steps and giving time for addicts to share some of their daily
struggles against addiction.

"We want to raise awareness and give addicts a place to go," he says.