TRAINING TO FIGHT METH ABUSE

MORE than 600 front-line police and community agencies across the
province will have access to cutting edge, online training to deal
with the growing problem of crystal meth use.

Manitoba is the first province to provide this service so extensively
to a cross section of agencies.

The Internet-accessible program was developed by a three-year-old
non-profit agency called the Canadian Police Knowledge Network. It
will provide workers with a range of information like what to do when
individuals unknowingly encounter a meth lab, identify some of the
common characteristics of a meth addict and recognize what types of
equipment and chemicals are used in meth labs.

Manitoba Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh said the service will be
particularly valuable to rural law enforcement agencies that may not
have had much exposure to the nasty particulars of crystal meth
addictions and the dangerous community hazards of the clandestine labs
that produce the drug.

The program will cost the province $15,000 to register 600 users. It
is part of a broad range of programs the province is implementing to
prevent crystal meth addiction from becoming as widespread in Manitoba
as it is in other western North American jurisdictions.