CRYSTAL METH TREATMENTS ARE AVAILABLE

Law enforcement and health care workers have at times had an oil-and-water
relationship when it comes to dealing with illegal drug use.

But if last week's Western Canadian Summit on Methamphetamine is any
indication, according to Sherry Mumford, head of addictions services for
the Fraser Health Authority, the two appear to capable of working together
to solve some problems.

The internationally attended crystal meth summit was held in Vancouver to
educate law enforcement, health care workers and others with a stake in the
crippling effects of crystal meth, on treatment options, and to develop a
framework for tackling the evils of a drug which is gaining in popularity -
especially with teens and young adults.

Delegates from the U.K., the United States, Australia, and from across the
province, gathered to illustrate how the cheap, highly addictive drug has
impacted their respective communities.

Mumford said the local crystal meth problem appears to be very similar here
as it is in other parts of the world.

"We are all pretty much experiencing the same problem, but it's an old
problem that has come back to haunt us once again," she said, adding that
the use of methamphtamines was a popular drug of choice in the 1940s and
1950s, but faded in use only to re-emerge once again.

In Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows area, use and production of the drug has
ballooned over the past few yeas, but Mumford says that while more people
are using meth, it's still not the most popular illegal drug around.

"At the end of day it's still the third or fourth drug of choice," said
Mumford, adding she gleaned from the conference that meth use is consistent
across the world (except in Asia where it's the number one drug) in terms
of usage, compared to other drugs like heroin, cocaine, marijuana and alcohol.

However, the local problem is troubling enough that a grassroots,
citizen-led task force has been struck to focus on improving access to
treatment, education, and law enforcement.

The health authority, in the meantime, has been grappling to find an
effective treatment to cure users of the drug, who've become severely addicted.

But according to Mumford, she learned at the conference that treatment
programs used to treat heroin and cocaine addicts can work for meth addicts
and the health authority might not have to reinvent the wheel and spend
money on developing meth specific treatment program.

"We don't need to be doing that," she said.

"There isn't any real evidence to support designing a specific treatment
for crystal meth people...they can be treated with the resources we have
(for) cocaine (addiction)."

Mumford said the most encouraging aspect of the three-day conference for
her was the sight of law enforcement and health care works working together
to address the meth problem.

She said that too often in the past the two different agencies have held
drastically different opinions of how to deal with drug users.

She said the police, obviously, see incarceration as the best option,
whereas the health authority tends to seek more a treatment-based option
for addicts, as opposed to jail time where programs aren't as available.

Those opinions, however, appeared to be set aside.

"It was nice to see law enforcement and health community agencies sitting
in there and working through some of those differences," Mumford said.

No concrete plans were made at the meth conference, however a so-called
"consensus document" is in the works to build a framework to guide how
strategies to deal with the drug will work.