ADDICTION 'HUSH HUSH' APPROACH CALLED WRONG

No mother can forget the moment her child is born.

For 20 year-old Kelsie Richardson, it is a moment hundreds, if not
thousands, of perfect strangers won't forget either.

Watching the documentary Crystal Fear, Crystal Clear, more than 100
Kelowna residents assembled at the Mary Irwin Theatre Tuesday night
felt their hearts seize as tiny Brianne Richardson takes along pause
before starting to breath.

On camera, the young mother who struggled to get off crystal meth, get
her General Equivalency Diploma and save her and her baby's life
whimpers quietly after an emergency C-section.

Nearly two years later, this young mother was in town to teach other
parents, professionals and teens about the dangerous drug, described
by panel speaker Dr. Gabor Mate as producing 1,200 per cent more of
the euphoria-inducing hormone dopamine than naturally occurs in the
brain.

A drug like alcohol produces just 100 per cent more; cocaine just 50
per cent increase.

In town to speak publicly for the first time about the documentary,
Richardson was ask what she needed to hear to get off drugs.

"When you're on meth there's nothing you can say to them," she
answered. "All you can do is tell them you love them."

It was a resounding theme of the three-hour presentation which kicks
of the 90- day convening of a Crystal Meth task force.

If there was one message Mate, an addictions specialist working in the
downtown Vancouver Eastside, drove home, it was the importance of
family involvement, the importance of staying connected.

It is a message that clearly proves true in Richardson's
case.

Once a meth-addicted teen whose mother described on film as using
copious amounts of Gravol to ease her suffering as she came down from
the outrageous high, Richardson is now a responsible mother herself
who has conquered her addiction with the help of her mother.

Waitressing at the Hope Drive-In to support her daughter, she is, as
one audience member stood up to tell her, a "beautiful" girl and a
beautiful spokesperson for the need to educate today's youth.

Asked in interview after the forum if she knew what she was getting
into when she tried meth, Richardson was emphatic. "No. I had no
idea," she said.

Asked why she took time out to attend last night's forum, she said: "I
just think there needs to be something done about (crystal meth)."

It is as her mother describes on film: "Some people would want to keep
it hush hush, but I don't think it's the right thing to do."

The Crystal Meth task force project has been assembled by the Living
Positive Resource Centre with the City of Kelowna's support.

The group is still looking for volunteers to fill spots on the three
groups--education, enforcement and treatment. For information contact
Brian Mairs or Daryle Roberts at 862-2481.