METH TO HIS MADNESS

If there's anyone who understands the scarcity of detox beds on
Vancouver Island, it's Victoria resident Martin Cockerill.

A B.C. Ferries employee, the 33-year-old former crystal meth addict
had to travel all the way to Kelowna last year to find a readily
available detox bed.

And without funding from his employer for the 28-day residential
program, he would have spent weeks or even months on a waiting list.

"I got the treatment I needed but I had to drive myself to Kelowna to
get it. I took my last puff on the nine o'clock ferry from Swartz
Bay," recalled Cockerill, a self-described poster boy for meth
addiction who now works with the Crystal Meth Victoria Society.

"I smashed my pipe under my foot and drove like hell to Kelowna. I
had to stop for a couple of Red Bulls on the way, but I made it."

The detox facility in Kelowna has 28 beds, of which six are privately
operated and 22 are part of the public health-care system. Cockerill,
who has now been drug-free for eight months, was lucky to have an
employer willing to foot the $3,360 bill for the program.

But that's a luxury few can afford. Most addicts, whether the drug of
choice is crystal meth, heroin, cocaine or alcohol, face long waits
for beds that are in short supply.

The dearth of treatment beds on the Island, especially for the
growing number of youth falling victim to the lure of crystal
methamphetamine, is becoming a priority for the Crystal Meth Victoria Society.

"We are currently under-served on Vancouver Island in terms of youth
detox beds," president Mark Mclaughlin said during a press conference
Wednesday morning.

"If there's a child who needs extended treatment for 20, 40 or 80
days, they're going to be shipped to the Mainland."

There are currently five youth detox beds on the South Island and two
more set to come on stream in the Parksville area, he said. Crystal
Meth Victoria is working with the Vancouver Island Health Authority
on a plan to fund additional treatment beds.

Along with talk of beefed-up treatment programs, Wednesday's press
conference provided an update on the society's multi-faceted efforts
to stop the crystal meth epidemic.

The society's biggest achievement has been producing an educational
video that has received rave reviews from students at local schools.

"The goal of the education presentation is to make meth a bad word,"
he said. "We want to roll out the program across all the schools on
the South Island. We believe forewarned is forearmed."

Students who attend and ask questions about the drug indicate that
crystal meth has made inroads into the schools.

"The level of engagement is astonishing," McLaughlin said, noting
that many students admit knowing someone who has tried the drug.
"Either they all know the same guy or there's lots of this stuff in
our schools and we need to go after it."

Crystal Meth Victoria, which works closely with the Greater Victoria
school district, has other initiatives in progress or soon to be up
and running. Those include a hotline to provide information about the
drug and the upcoming start of a Meth Watch program, a local version
of a North America-wide initiative aimed at restricting access to
"precursor" ingredients at pharmacies and hardware stores.

Society volunteers are also gathering information on the number of
court cases related to meth addiction and the number of youths who
have tried the drug. While those results are not yet available,
McLaughlin said there's no reason to believe the numbers will differ
greatly from a study in Surrey in which 10 per cent of high school
kids admitted trying the drug once and between four and six per cent
used it more than once a week.

Each "pillar" of the society's approach represents a piece of the
puzzle, McLaughlin said.

That comment prompted an impassioned speech from Rev. Al Tysick,
director of Our Place street ministry on Johnson Street.

"We need a complete social plan that doesn't only talk about extra
beds in detox," Tysick said.

"We talk about the sobering centre, we talk about a safe injection
site, but we're not talking about as a community together a complete
social plan.

"I can't believe we're sitting here talking about pieces of the puzzle."