COMMUNITY GROUPS FORMING TO HELP TACKLE DRUG ISSUES

Crystal meth and other drugs are making their way into southern
Alberta. Communities are striking at the issue head on with community
groups focused on education and prevention.

Lethbridge and Taber have had groups that bring community members and
service providers together for a while to tackle drugs issues in the
community but in other places like Fort Macleod and Claresholm,
programs are just getting underway.

"I think certainly the emergence of some of these drugs, like crystal
meth, different agencies have come to the decision they can't do this
alone," says Susan Canning, manager of the Alberta Alcohol and Drug
Abuse Commission Lethbridge area office.

AADAC has begun offering funding of up to $3,000 per drug coalition
per year for a maximum of three years to be used by the coalitions
for community meetings, travel to relevant workshops and conferences,
training and other things.

Canning says there are close to 50 coalitions across the province
looking at a variety of different areas including drug prevention,
treatment, policing, enforcement and harm reduction.

She says coalitions first started springing up in places like Camrose
and Drayton Valley, where drugs were rampant and similar groups have
started in other communities that want to avoid drugs becoming a problem.

Erica Rowntree, the outreach program co-ordinator of Claresholm and
District Family and Community Support Services, sees the Claresholm
and District Drug Coalition as a way to educate both young people and
their parents about drugs and where they can go for help and assistance.

"Claresholm is just a great little community and we want to keep it
that way," she says.

People from the health region, schools, law enforcement and one of
the churches are among those on the coalition. Rowntree says she sees
it as a circling effect; if there is someone in need, there are more
places people can go for help that are all working together.

The Fort Macleod Crystal Meth Coalition got started in December. Val
Campbell, who co-chairs the coalition and is the executive director
of the Foothills Detox Centre, says they put a blurb in the paper
during National Addictions Awareness Week in November to see if
anyone would be interested in starting a coalition. After they were
swamped with phone calls, they decided to move ahead with organizing.

"There is a great crystal meth problem in rural southern Alberta.
It's everywhere really," says Angela Bourassa, co-chair of the Fort
Macleod Crystal Meth Coalition. "Our community is starting to realize
we need to work as a community. We need a lot of people and everyone
on board to make something happen."

In Taber, the Taber Community Against Drugs group got started around
two and half years ago after an influx of crack cocaine, says Insp.
Graham Abela, with the Taber Police. Abela, who co-chairs the group,
says they've pushed education and prevention of crystal methamphetamine.

"Something has to be working because we haven't had a case yet,"
Abela says. ". . . If it hasn't hit our radar screen I'm not saying
it's not out there but we think it's a good indicator that it's not
prevalent. So if we can help there that's one of the main goals of the group."