TASK FORCE RELEASES REPORT ON METH

Oceanside Group Way Ahead On Meeting Meth Education, Prevention Objectives

There was a round of thank-yous served up with the snacks at the
wrap-up meeting for the Oceanside Community Crystal Meth Task Force this week.

"I think that it's really important -- what's happened in this
community is really special," says chair of the task force Kevin
Wilson at the open house, which also served as a release party for a
report of the group's work so far.

"I don't want to call it a final report -- this is really a look
back," he says.

The report shows the steps in their work, from September 2004 when
the issue first came to light, to now. It looks at the successes,
along with their one big challenge -- the restructuring of a task
force model they had adopted from the Maple Ridge project.

With it all laid out on paper like that, others involved were able to
reflect on the amount of work that has been accomplished.

"I'm feeling really good about the way the community responded to
this initiative and I think overall that's what had the greatest
impact," says Al MacDonald, another committee member who works with
the Ministry of Children and Families.

He says one of the committee's greatest strengths was being able to
cut through bureaucracy, and their drive to do something, rather than
passing off the responsibility.

"Here we just said it needs to be done, how can we pool our money to
do this," says MacDonald. They moved quickly, stayed flexible and
were able to overcome hurdles, he adds.

While the party sounds like a wrap up to the entire project, it is
really only a scaling down of the OCCMTF -- from a broad community
initiative to a smaller management committee that will continue the
programs that have been set up.

That continued monitoring, says MacDonald, is a good thing.

"I don't think we're out of the woods on this -- I think we have a
framework of how to deal with this or any other emergent drug issue," he says.

Wilson says its an accomplishment that all of Oceanside should be proud of.

"The task has been achieved, the objective has been met," he says.
"We're way ahead."