YOUNG METH-HEADS NEED OUR HELP

At a provincial seminar on methamphetamine last week, Alberta Solicitor
General Heather Forsyth reiterated her proposal that youth drug addicts
should be forced into treatment.

While that might be a good idea under the right circumstances, it's
probably putting the cart before the horse.

Few people may know this, but the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission
(AADAC) has no residential detox centres for youth.

How can this be? I'm as flabbergasted as you are, but that's the reality in
one of the wealthiest provinces in the country.

Marilyn Mitchell, AADAC's manager of youth services, says the agency would
like to fill this "gap", and the need has been addressed in AADAC's
business plan.

Whether residential detox/treatment beds appear, however, depends on
provincial funding.

And Health Minister Gary Mar made it clear in July that there's no money
for expanded treatment programs.

How's that for common sense?

The province sponsors a workshop on methamphetamine, but is too
short-sighted to acknowledge that some drug-addicted kids, especially
meth-heads, need intensive, long-term help.

AADAC does have three-month residential support programs for youth in
Edmonton and Calgary, where services include group and individual
counselling and on-site schooling.

But the kids spent the night in private homes and go to treatment centres
during the day.

"For most kids, residential support is a good model," says Mitchell of the
16 beds available for youth in private homes in the province's two largest
cities.

But other addicted teens need a more structured environment, she says.

Male young offenders who have severe drug problems can get into residential
treatment through the John Howard Society.

And drug-addicted kids under the care of Children's Services have access to
the residential program at the Chimo Youth Retreat Centre.

But there are no 24-hour services for kids who aren't involved with the
justice system or the child welfare system.

For the families of those children, it can be an overwhelming challenge,
says Mitchell.

"It's hard to stand by and feel that you're powerless to do anything," she
says of parents whose children are crystal meth addicts.

While there are ADDAC offices all over the province that provide
counselling and family support services, day programs alone aren't likely
to win the battle against crystal meth, one of the most insidious drugs around.

A synthetic stimulant, it's cheap, accessible, highly addictive and can do
enormous damage to your central nervous system.

A report on the drug for the City of Edmonton's Safer Cities Advisory
Committee earlier this year noted that users never know what they're consuming.

Meth is made by combining and cooking household chemicals and extracts from
cold medicine like ephedrine - massive quantities of which were seized in a
police bust in Hanna last week.

"For $10, a meth user can get a rush followed by a high lasting (up to) 12
hours, compared with about 20 minutes from crack cocaine for the same
amount of money," the report observed.

But people high on meth are prone to paranoia and violence, go days without
sleep and become depressed and suicidal after they crash and go into
withdrawal.

Addicts need more and more crystal meth to get the same high, and beating
the psychological addiction is extremely difficult.

"This stuff is pretty vicious and I'm not someone who is easily alarmist,"
says Benedikt Fischer, a drug and public health expert at the Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health.

And the relapse rate for recovering addicts is high, he says.

"(Recovery) is not impossible but the prospects overall are not so terribly
good."

Crystal meth use is "rampant" among young people, according to a local
addictions worker quoted in the Safer Cities report.