ANTI-DRUG COMMITTEE ALMOST WHOLE

A Lloydminster anti-drug committee is nearing its final form with the
addition of two new members.

Lloydminster Meridian Booster -- A Lloydminster anti-drug committee
is nearing its final form with the addition of two new members.

More than a dozen prominent local organizations have joined forces
with the City of Lloydminster in formulating a made-at-home drug
action plan to promote awareness on drugs and fight drug use among local youth.

More than a month ago, the city released the terms of reference for
the newly formed Lloydminster Area Drug Strategy and Action
Committee, and this past Monday city council appointed eight members
to the fledgling committee.

In addition to the eight already appointed members, Monell Bailey of
the Lloydminster Native Friendship Centre, and Tom Lysyk, senior
director of corporate affairs for the city have both been appointed
to the board.

"The organization is pretty much set up," Lysyk said. "I will just be
looking after some coordination for the, making sure they get up and
running. I'm also a little involved in the policing end, because I
manage the police contract."

Other confirmed members include: Bonita Brick, representing the
Prairie North Health Region, Pat Tenney, representing the Lloyd
Chamber of Commerce, Michael Diachuk, representing the Lloydminster
Public School Division; Kevin Kusch, representing the Lloydminster
Catholic School Division; Craig Featherstone, representing the Walter
A. 'Slim' Thorpe Recovery Centre; Shauna Godin, representing Catholic
Social Services; Angela Rooks, representing Midwest Victims Services;
Muriel Ralston, representing the Lloydminster Sexual Assault Centre;
Linda Hegseth, representing the Department of Community Resources;
and Dale Block of East Central Alberta Child and Family Services.

The committee is still waiting on one more appointment from the City
of Lloydminster, but have tentatively scheduled a meeting for late
May, where members will conduct a working session to determine
principles and establish workgroups to target specific issues.
Featherstone said he sees strong potential for the drug action
committee to have a significant impact on the community.

"We don't know exactly what we're going to be doing yet, but we're
excited about it," he said in a recent interview. "Nobody has any
agenda of their own. We're all going in there with the idea of
working together to do what we can to improve public awareness.

"There are plenty of addiction problems in this community and a lot
of drug abuse and so on, that many people just aren't aware of. We
want to get parents more aware of what to look for in their kids and
things like that -- just any little thing we can do to help and get
the public involved."