Pubdate: Mon, 09 Mar 2009
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Denise Ryan, Canwest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?241 (Methamphetamine - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

DISTURBING STATS HIGHLIGHT METH RISK

One In Five Students Say They Know Someone Using The Dangerous Drug

(CNS) One in every five students who filled out a survey form after 
an anti-drug group's presentations around the province last year said 
they know of someone using crystal meth, and nearly half said they 
know of someone using ecstasy.

"The survey results show just how easy it is to get drugs like 
crystal meth and ecstasy and an alarming lack of knowledge about how 
easy it is to slip into using them," said Mark McLaughlin, executive 
director of the Victoria-based Crystal Meth Society of B.C.

McLaughlin presented the statistics Friday in Victoria to the 
Federation of Canadian Municipalities' standing committee on 
community safety and crime prevention. The results come at a time of 
escalating concern about drug-related gang violence.

"One of the goals for the Crystal Meth Society is to stop the 
creation of the client base that funds the gangs," McLaughlin said. 
"This is, without a doubt, part of the solution to combating drugs and gangs."

McLaughlin's group conducted the survey by asking students to fill 
out forms after they heard the group's "Meth Info Show," which was 
presented in schools around the province over a 12-month period last 
year. A total of 2,715 students in Grades 6 to 12 filled out the forms.

The survey showed more than 40 per cent of respondents had a lack of 
understanding about how drug dealers get people hooked, often by 
slipping crystal meth into other drugs.

It showed that 47 per cent of students know someone using ecstasy and 
that more than 40 per cent don't realize that crystal meth is 
sometimes laced into ecstasy, cocaine and even marijuana.

"From school to school, the statistics consistently showed similar 
results," said McLaughlin, who founded the group when one of his own 
children became hooked on the highly addictive drug.

"When you're walking the midnight streets looking for your lost child 
and you bump into other parents doing the same thing, looking for 
their kids, you start to realize the scope of the problem."

Although his own child is off the drug, "sleeping at night and 
working," McLaughlin said the problem isn't going away.

Results from the survey also show that 94 per cent of students would 
not use crystal meth after seeing the Meth Info show; 75 per cent 
don't know of any organizations in their community that address the 
problem of crystal meth, and 37 per cent say crystal meth is easily 
available. Eight per cent have been offered the drug.

Minister of Education Shirley Bond recently awarded the society 
$50,000 with a mandate to continue to educate the public, and develop 
a "pedagogically appropriate product" for kids in Grades 4 and 5.

McLaughlin said he's grateful his own child is doing better, but he's 
also painfully aware of "the other families whose children are dead 
and buried in the ground."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom