Pubdate: Fri, 16 Sep 2005
Source: North Shore News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 North Shore News
Contact:  http://www.nsnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/311
Author: Keith Baldrey, Contributing writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

PROVINCE HAS ROLE TO PLAY IN STREET-DRUG WAR

When it comes to tackling health and social problems, there is one area 
where all governments come up short.

That area is the preventative side. A dollar spent on prevention can easily 
save many more dollars down the road, but politicians are fixated on 
getting the most immediate bang for today's buck.

But preventative policies do work. One notable example is smoking. The 
smoking rate among young people in British Columbia has dropped 
significantly over the past decade, thanks in no small part to the very 
aggressive and graphic anti-smoking campaign in schools that was started by 
the previous NDP government.

However, there is another area where preventative measures are urgently 
needed to combat a growing problem that is consuming young lives at an 
alarming rate. I'm talking about street drugs. And I'm not referring to 
marijuana, heroin or cocaine. Instead, there is a particularly sinister 
drug that has become a scourge of society: crystal meth.

How evil this drug is was recently brought home to me in a very chilling 
and horrific way.

A 13-year-old Victoria schoolgirl recently died after taking a street drug 
- - likely ecstasy cut with crystal meth - for the first time. Her name was 
Mercedes Clarke, and she was a good friend of my oldest daughter. Mercedes 
was a tiny, sweet teenager who loved shopping, dancing and was eagerly 
awaiting her first day of high school. I used to tease her about her 
ever-changing hair colour, and the thought of her using drugs was a 
completely foreign idea to anyone who knew her.

But after a single instance of experimentation, she is dead, and a 
community is still reeling from the absolute shock and horror that 
accompanies a young person's death.

If an aggressive anti-smoking campaign can have so much positive influence 
on young people, shouldn't there be an equally aggressive anti-street drug 
campaign in our schools and communities? Shouldn't governments of all 
levels channel more tax dollars to that end?

Young people naturally feel immune to the many dangers they confront as 
they grow older. But many of them seem to have gotten the message about 
smoking, and judging from the reaction I heard from young people when they 
learned of Premier Gordon Campbell's drinking-and-driving episode, they 
also have a dimmer view of that kind of behaviour than young people a 
decade ago.

But street drug use can be an extremely dangerous activity. Death is not 
always the result of course, but a street drug like crystal meth (and 
pretty well all ecstasy is now cut with it) can have devastating results on 
one's health, both physically and mentally. Teeth and hair loss and skin 
lesions are some outcomes, and so is brain damage.

Encouragingly, some municipalities have realized the extent of the problem 
and have set up task forces to take control of the unwinding tragedy on 
their streets. The North Shore, Surrey and Maple Ridge, along with three 
Vancouver Island cities, have set up crystal meth community task forces to 
combat the manufacturing, trafficking and use of crystal meth.

Hopefully other towns will come on board. But I would argue the provincial 
government should start realizing it also has a major role to play in this 
war. The fight against street drugs must take place in our communities, but 
also in our schools.

Mercedes' death has had a profound impact on the kids who knew and loved 
her. Perhaps they will have a "herd immunity" that shields them from making 
the kind of mistake that robbed her of her glowing future. But one death is 
much too high a price to achieve that immunity.

Surely, a better way is to get out in front of kids now, in a loud and 
effective way, and send home the message that street drugs are evil, plain 
and simple. That approach is working in combating smoking, and it is time 
to use the same strategy against the growing menace of street drugs.

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Keith Baldrey is legislature bureau chief of BCTV News on Global.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman