MOTHER PLEADS WITH MLAS TO SWIFTLY PASS METH BILL

A Winnipeg mother whose teenager died addicted to crystal meth
pleaded with provincial politicians yesterday to swiftly pass a bill
which could save other parents from burying their children.

Carole Johnson spoke before a legislature committee last night
reviewing the Youth Drug Stabilization Act, which will let parents
force their drug-addicted kids into detox for seven days, hoping it
will give them time to sober up and choose to get help for their addiction.

"We desperately need this bill," Johnson said.

Johnson's daughter, Colleen, was 17 when she died in July 2004. She
had been addicted to crystal methamphetamine since she was 15, and
died in a car crash.

Johnson says her daughter never would have been in that car if she
wasn't on meth.

She tried for months to get Colleen help but says she was turned away
by the courts, the police, and the hospitals. She says if this
legislation had been in place two years ago, her daughter may have
been saved. "All I can do is hope that it would have," she said.
Johnson said she felt useless when she couldn't get her daughter
help. "Parents need some kind of hope," she said.

Johnson had planned to ask the government to rename the bill
Colleen's Law, but the government balked at naming it after one child
when there are many whose lives were cut short by drug abuse.

Instead the province has promised Johnson a plaque with Colleen's
name and story will be mounted at the site of the detox centre which
will be opened to handle children forced into treatment under this bill.

Johnson said that will be very special to her.

"If her death can save one kid then I've done my job," said Johnson.

Opposition politicians have agreed to let this bill pass, though they
fear there are not enough available treatment beds for kids to go to.
The Addictions Foundation of Manitoba has a four to eight week wait
for its youth residential treatment program.

Healthy Living Minister Theresa Oswald has promised additional
resources to ensure no kid seeking help is turned away.