LOCAL METH TASK FORCE SET TO STRATEGIZE

Provincial funding totalling $1 million for the Perth County Meth
Task Force should be forthcoming in about two weeks and the first
thing will be to bring the members together to plan the pilot project
intended for province-wide use. Mayor Dan Mathieson, co-chair of the
task force, said he has already been in contact with the University
of Waterloo regarding playing a role through its masters programs in
social work and public health, and he expects they will help in
completing some of the work. The funding was welcomed by the mayor
and by task force co-chair Dr. Rosana Pellizzari, medical officer of
health for Perth County. "It's saying to me that our work has not
gone unnoticed I think our work is paying off," said Dr.
Pellizzari. Although there's still no provincewide strategy for
dealing with crystal meth, she said, she is hopeful the task force
here will be a leader and will assist the government in dealing with
the problem. Her own involvement in the pilot project, however, will
be limited as she'll be moving on to a new public health position in
Toronto at the end of April when her duties here end. She said she
hopes that her replacement as medical officer of health will fill the
gap. Mayor Mathieson said he expects that by the beginning of May the
task force will want to present its plan to the community and would
then work through MPP John Wilkinson's office to eventually forward
its work to the ministries of the Attorney General and Correctional
Services. The $1 million for the task force announced Friday by Mr.
Wilkinson is pegged for a one-year pilot project that will include
educational awareness, treatment and enforcement pertaining to
methamphetamine manufacture and use. The task force was established
at the end of 2005 to combat a burgeoning meth problem in the county,
evidenced by the discovery and dismantling of about 15 meth labs and
several fires associated with making the illicit, highly addictive
and dangerous drug. In announcing the funding, Mr. Wilkinson recalled
that Perth County and Stratford had been given "a black eye" on the
meth issue about a year ago. "We're going to figure out how to run
that drug out of this county," he said. In an interview he credited
Monte Kwinter, the minister of Community Safety and Correctional
Services, and Finance Minister Greg Sorbara for supporting the
project. "There's a method to my madness," said Mr. Wilkinson, in
bringing so many cabinet ministers to town. Mr. Kwinter was impressed
with the community support shown for combating the meth problem. The
government is hoping a solution will come from the task force and
from what's known about the problem in the county. In a press
release, Dr. Pellizzari said Perth County has identified the major
gaps and needs. "We have done our homework and we believe that any
approach to substance use needs to include all four of Canada's
national drug strategy pillars: prevention, treatment, enforcement
and harm reduction." She said the funding could be used in a number
of ways. Among them: * Set up prevention and treatment programs and
good outpatient programs for those who want to kick the
highly-addictive drug. * Figure out how to equip and train
first-responders properly to deal with the labs and chemicals inside
them. * Put in place a process to clean up the labs, the homes, land
or farms after a bust. * Assess what can be done with the people -
and often children - who are found living in the buildings where
so-called cooks brew the toxic chemicals to make the drug. Since it
began in late 2005, the task force has lobbied for a provincial
strategy on crystal meth and has taken steps locally to address
research and service gaps, she said. Thirty major stakeholders,
including police, locally and provincially elected officials, the
health care sector, schools and mental health agencies have been
working on the meth problem.

- - With files from the London Free Press