DRUGGED OUT

Islanders Committed To Reducing The Supply And Demand For Drugs On P.E.I.
Are Urging Better Treatment, More Education And Increased Resources To Help
Combat The Complex Problem

From duped doctors to dope pushers, Prince Edward Island's drug problem is
far reaching.

Several Islanders ? some paid to work at reducing the supply of drugs and
others employed to help those damaged by drug use ? have offered their
insight into the province's complex drug scene.

Collectively, they painted a bleak picture but also offered suggestions to
get at the problem.

One of the more disturbing images conveyed was that of some doctors sharing
with drug pushers the dubious distinction of fuelling the province's drug
problem. While pushers supply drugs for profit, doctors can be duped into
unwittingly prescribing a fix for Island addicts.

"There is quite an abuse of prescription drugs on P.E.I.," said Sgt. Rick
Gibbons, the man in charge of the RCMP drug section for the province.

"Double-doctoring is a common form of obtaining more prescriptions than you
need for your own personal consumption."

Dr. Cyril Moyse, registrar of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of
P.E.I., described double-doctoring as a national problem that is "clearly a
criminal matter."

Moyse said some Islanders may go to their own doctor to get a prescription,
then charge off to outpatients to get a second dose prescribed.

"I got nailed by a couple of con artists once and it really makes you
angry," said Moyse.

"I think most doctors have been fooled at one time or another," the
physician added.

Gibbons said police have indications the odd Prince Edward Island doctor or
two may be a knowing party to overprescribing drugs.

"There's certain doctors that have come to our attention," he said. "If we
do make seizures of these prescription drugs there seems to be a certain
doctor every time that is writing the prescription."

Moyse said the College of Physicians and Surgeons has investigated ? and is
investigating ? concerns that some Island doctors may be overprescribing drugs.

Moyse said the college has been frustrated in its attempts to gather
sufficient proof to support claims that some doctors here are knowingly
prescribing more drugs than they should.

Finding a way to shut the door on this practice, however, would likely do
little more than put a small dent in the vast supply of drugs being
consumed and injected by Island addicts.

After all, more Islanders are addicted to alcohol ? a legal substance ?
than to any other drug, said Maureen McIver, an addictions consultant with
the Department of Health and Social Services.

There is also plenty of demand here for illegal drugs, primarily cannabis
products like marijuana, hashish, liquid hash and cocaine, said Gibbons.

The RCMP sergeant said illegal drugs usually are driven into the province
in private vehicles but he added some people have tapped into courier
services, bus services and even the postal service to cart illegal
substances here.

"It's only limited to their imagination," he said.

Gibbons said some of the established criminal organizations, quite likely
including the notorious biker gang Hells Angels, has some influence here in
the drug trade.

"There could be people working on their (Hells Angels) behalf or there
could be profits going back to them . . . information that we get through
our investigations lead us to believe that their influence is here," he said.

Gibbons said police also believe Islanders in recent years have
increasingly taken to growing their own marijuana right here at home.

"For a number of reasons over the last number of years it seems like almost
anybody can start up their own actual hydroponics or just an indoor
cultivation," he said.

"The way the seeds have developed over the years it's pretty high-quality
stuff. So it's a fairly lucrative market. Some people may only be growing
for their own personal consumption. . . but there's a lot of situations
where it's on a commercial basis."

Gibbons said he "couldn't even estimate" how many people are growing
marijuana here, saying only that the practice has become more prominent in
the last couple of years.

McIver also makes no attempt to quantify the province's drug problem.

"I don't think we have any real idea of the number of people that are
using," she said.

"When they become addicted and get into trouble, then hopefully we see them
within the addiction system. But how many are actually using out there,
maybe not problematically but illegally, who would know that? I don't know."

McIver believes the Island addict ? as well as his or her family members ?
endure far too much hardship before the addict ever receives any help from
the province's Addiction Services.

One problem is the province has no standardized screening for addiction.

McIver would like Islanders to be automatically screened as part of an
overall assessment, either within acute care settings, doctors' offices,
mental-health services or the like.

Get people to addiction services at the earliest possible stage in their
addiction, she urges.

"I would say when they arrive at the provincial detox they're fairly far
advanced," she said.

"There are just problems in the home or maybe there's problems with their
job or maybe there's problems with their health . . . Most people have very
serious problems by the time they end up in an inpatient setting."

Wayne Clark, supervisor of an extended-care facility for men who are in the
later stages of addiction, also believes a screening process should be
developed in the province.

"It's unfortunate the province doesn't have a screening process ? very
unfortunate," he said.

Clark also wants to see an end to all the harmful interruptions to
treatment that is commonplace for the Islander with a drug addiction. He
said when people are delayed in getting needed treatment they usually end
up returning to their drug use.

"We still need more access to treatment," said Clark.

"You still have to wait . . . Detox is full most of the time, rehab
department is stretched to the limit . . . We need to be careful that we
keep moving forward with the services and that we don't cut anymore."

Kevin McKinnon, youth and family services supervisor with Addictions
Services, says earlier intervention also spares children a great deal of
suffering.

"Over time it has a serious impact on how families live on a day-to-day
basis," he said of a family member carrying on with an untreated drug or
alcohol addiction.

"Some kids choose to withdraw. Other kids will choose to really act out. It
depends on the personality."

McKinnon would also like to see all schools on Prince Edward Island, not
just the 30 or so currently involved, buy into the Student Assistance
Program which educates students about addictions.

"We kind of leave it up to the school to contact us," he said.

"I'd love to see it in every school . . . There's always going to be some
(youth) that slip through the cracks."

In some elementary schools, a Children of Addicts program is offered,
targeting students who are at high risk of eventually developing their own
drug addiction. The program is based on the Four Cs philosophy: kids aren't
the cause of a parent's addiction, they can't cure it, they can't control
it but they can develop ways to cope with the situation.

"I think we have seen that start to work because over the past number of
years we've been in the elementary schools and we're not seeing the same
kids all the time right through the school system," he said.

McKinnon doesn't like using the word addiction to describe a youth's
involvement with alcohol or drugs.

"Don't get me wrong, there are some youth out there that are definitely
addicted," he said. "The majority aren't. The majority are harmfully
involved, meaning that their drug use is causing them some difficulties."

He estimates 10 to 15 per cent of Island youth are "harmfully involved"
with drugs or alcohol.

About 3,000 students across Prince Edward Island will soon be surveyed to
help determine the frequency of drug use among youth, the types of drugs
being used, and the factors which influence their drug use, said Dr. Linda
Van Til, a researcher with the Department of Health and Social Services.

Those survey results will be released in November.

Cpl. Ken Murray, co-ordinator of the Drug Awareness Section of the RCMP,
said his resources are inadequate to have the desired strong impact in
steering youth away from drugs.

"If I go into a high school once a year, lets face it, do we have any
impact? You know we don't," he said.

"I think we've (RCMP) been promised positions the last number of years
since I came into the program for drug awareness and they haven't
materialized."

For better results with all sectors of the province, McIver is calling on
the federal government to end the "conspiracy of silence" in regards to
addictions.

"I think we need to present the straight facts about drugs . . . The
message has to be real."

McIver was one of five Islanders invited to speak recently to the House of
Commons Special Committee on the Non-Medical Use of Drugs. She had no
shortage of suggestions for the committee to take to the federal government
for serious consideration.

They include:

- - Mass media public education regarding the effects of drug abuse and
misuse on population health;

- - Educational institutions need to extensively train physicians, nurses,
social workers, psychologists and other professionals on addiction issues;

- - Create a division within Health Canada devoted to addictions research,
prevention, education and policy;

- - Federal government needs to provide more funding to assist provinces in
the delivery of addiction programs.

The committee also heard from other presenters on a host of needs ranging
from enhanced drug enforcement to earlier intervention for addicts.

Although established about a full year ago on May 17, 2001, the House of
Commons Special Committee on Non-medical Use of Drugs only managed to
gather five Islanders together to solicit input on the many problems
associated with drugs in this province.

And the five participants were given only a precious few days to prepare
their presentations.