CALVERT HOSTS LEADERS MEETING ON CRYSTAL METH

The increasing popularity of methamphetamine -- commonly known as crystal
meth -- has authorities concerned about the impact it could have on the
provinces.

Lloydminster Meridian Booster -- The increasing popularity of
methamphetamine -- commonly known as crystal meth -- has authorities
concerned about the impact it could have on the provinces.

This past Friday, Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert chaired a meeting on
the subject in Regina for the western and territorial justice, health and
public safety ministers, as well as the attorney general of North Dakota.

The purpose of the meeting was to address the growing problems with
addictions, particularly crystal meth.

"We're not starting at ground zero, and there's more yet that we will do,
but I do think we made some real progress in Regina on Friday on several
fronts," Calvert said. "There are areas where we should work together ...
for instance, we have all now agreed to do something about getting the
ingredients for crystal meth off the shelves."

Calvert said with the components of crystal meth readily available to the
general public, it becomes easy for labs to start up. By creating
legislation that relates to every province to ban certain medication from
being over-the-counter, there is less of a chance the drug will travel. But
if meth ingredients can be purchased in Alberta and not in Saskatchewan,
people will cross the border to get what they need.

"We've also agreed, without any hesitation, that we need change in the laws
of the land so that people who are trafficking, selling and producing
crystal meth would face at least the same level of penalty as those who are
trafficking cocaine or heroin," Calvert said.

Currently, the maximum sentence one faces for trafficking crystal meth is 10
years, whereas trafficking cocaine, heroin and even marijuana can garner a
sentence of life in prison.

Craig Featherstone, executive director of the Slim Thorpe Recovery Centre,
said the drug of choice in Lloydminster remains crack cocaine, likely
because of the high income bracket of residents in the city.

"Communities that don't have quite as much money certainly are leaning more
to the crystal meth. A community seems to (favour) one or the other and I
don't think there's a whole lot of crystal meth here," said Featherstone.

The centre is planning an expansion of the facilities by doubling the detox
beds from six to 12, and the resident beds from 20 to 40, while including
more cocaine and crystal meth-specific programming. Normally for a patient
to be eligible for a resident bed, he or she must be clean for seven days.
However, with the new crystal meth programming, the centre is looking at
increasing that to 30 days.

"We're finding with crystal meth ... they just are still catching up on
sleep and we can't seem to keep them awake," Featherstone said. "Their body
is going through a lot of changes and so the detox time or time to get
program-ready is much longer."

Chris Driol, addictions councillor in Saskatchewan, said that while the use
of crystal meth may be more prevalent in lower-income areas, more and more
he's finding users are spread across the income spectrum.

"It's really cutting a cross-section across society," he said. "Definitely
in a more wealthy community you'll see more cocaine use and possibly less
crystal meth, but nevertheless crystal meth is making in-roads across all
classes of society ... and even more well-to-do people are willing to save
money to get high and crystal meth is a very, very cheap drug compared to
cocaine."

The meeting this past Friday resulted in the identification of a need for a
national, educational campaign for youth about the dangers of the drug.
Calvert said while the push will be targeted mainly towards youth, parents
and teachers will also receive the information necessary to drive the
message across.

"The best medicine is always prevention -- let's get the message out, `Don't
ever use this (drug), even once,'" he said.

The ministers at the meeting outlined the need for cooperation between
police and the government to prevent trafficking as best as possible.
Intelligence, coordination of efforts and the establishment of a national
clearing-house on police activity in the take-down of meth labs is
necessary. Also noted was the need for changed legislation surrounding the
privacy act to allow sharing information.

The federal government has already acknowledged the need to look at
increasing penalties for trafficking crystal meth and through Precursor
Control Regulations will be controlling the sale of products containing
chemicals used to make crystal meth. The ministers will be presenting to the
federal government in October the conclusions reached at last week's
meeting.

"The federal government has been indicating that they want to move in that
direction. We're saying, `Move fast,'" said Calvert.