CRYSTAL METH EDUCATION URGED

There's no question that crystal meth is on Nanaimo streets. It's
been here for years.

The question city councillor Merv Unger wants raised is how to get
the message about the drug's dangers to school kids.

Unger is urging that school anti-drug education focus on the drug
because he's heard reports that crystal meth is being sprayed on
other drugs and even candy in an attempt to addict younger users.

He hasn't heard about it happening in Nanaimo yet, but that's why
it's time to raise the alarm bell.

"We think we have problems with it now, but when you start reaching
kids and putting it in candy, I think we need to start scaring the
hell out of people," he said.

Unger is chairman of the city's Safer Downtown Working Group, which
is looking to reduce problems on the streets. He thinks enforcement
is important, but prevention is the best cure when it comes to
addiction to a drug so easily made.

The drug is on the Education Ministry's anti-drug curriculum, but
Unger thinks kids need to hear more forcefully how powerfully
addictive and dangerous crystal meth is.

He's recommending schools add a presentation from the group Crystal Meth B.C.

The group's director, Mark McLaughlin, said it has presented its show
to 14,000 students in other communities on Vancouver Island and says
the message he's hearing back from the kids is clear.

When school audiences are asked if they know someone using crystal
meth "the hands go up in the air," he said. "And it's never less than
15 per cent, and it's often as high as 30 or 40 per cent."

Lorne Hildebrand of the Edgewood drug treatment clinic in Nanaimo
said he sees more addicts involved with crystal meth coming to his centre.

He added education efforts should be focused on addiction itself, not
a single drug.

"When you have the disease of addiction, any chemical works," said Hildebrand.