DISTURBING STATS HIGHLIGHT METH RISK

One In Five Students Say They Know Someone Using The Dangerous Drug

(CNS) One in every five students who filled out a survey form after
an anti-drug group's presentations around the province last year said
they know of someone using crystal meth, and nearly half said they
know of someone using ecstasy.

"The survey results show just how easy it is to get drugs like
crystal meth and ecstasy and an alarming lack of knowledge about how
easy it is to slip into using them," said Mark McLaughlin, executive
director of the Victoria-based Crystal Meth Society of B.C.

McLaughlin presented the statistics Friday in Victoria to the
Federation of Canadian Municipalities' standing committee on
community safety and crime prevention. The results come at a time of
escalating concern about drug-related gang violence.

"One of the goals for the Crystal Meth Society is to stop the
creation of the client base that funds the gangs," McLaughlin said.
"This is, without a doubt, part of the solution to combating drugs and gangs."

McLaughlin's group conducted the survey by asking students to fill
out forms after they heard the group's "Meth Info Show," which was
presented in schools around the province over a 12-month period last
year. A total of 2,715 students in Grades 6 to 12 filled out the forms.

The survey showed more than 40 per cent of respondents had a lack of
understanding about how drug dealers get people hooked, often by
slipping crystal meth into other drugs.

It showed that 47 per cent of students know someone using ecstasy and
that more than 40 per cent don't realize that crystal meth is
sometimes laced into ecstasy, cocaine and even marijuana.

"From school to school, the statistics consistently showed similar
results," said McLaughlin, who founded the group when one of his own
children became hooked on the highly addictive drug.

"When you're walking the midnight streets looking for your lost child
and you bump into other parents doing the same thing, looking for
their kids, you start to realize the scope of the problem."

Although his own child is off the drug, "sleeping at night and
working," McLaughlin said the problem isn't going away.

Results from the survey also show that 94 per cent of students would
not use crystal meth after seeing the Meth Info show; 75 per cent
don't know of any organizations in their community that address the
problem of crystal meth, and 37 per cent say crystal meth is easily
available. Eight per cent have been offered the drug.

Minister of Education Shirley Bond recently awarded the society
$50,000 with a mandate to continue to educate the public, and develop
a "pedagogically appropriate product" for kids in Grades 4 and 5.

McLaughlin said he's grateful his own child is doing better, but he's
also painfully aware of "the other families whose children are dead
and buried in the ground."