Pubdate: Fri, 23 Apr 2010
Source: Abbotsford Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2010 The Abbotsford Times
Contact:  http://www.abbotsfordtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1009
Author: Rafe Arnott
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

ABBY GANGSTERS & METH DEALERS TARGETING TWEENS

Young Addicts Make Great Clients

Children under the age of 12 in Abbotsford are regularly using 
ecstasy and crystal methamphetamine, and are part of the Lower 
Mainland's most sought after market of kids 14 years and younger that 
gangs dealing drugs target, according to police, counselors, drug use 
experts and former addicts.

Brian Gross is program director at IMPACT, an Abbotsford addiction 
and counseling centre for youth between the ages of 12 and 24 and 
said children in the community under 12 are actively using ecstasy.

"Absolutely. There are some that age who are using ecstasy . . . most 
of it has meth in it and we do a great deal to make kids understand that."

Const. Ian MacDonald with the Abbotsford Police Department said there 
is a direct relationship between organized crime and drug distribution.

"We know who they're marketing to. The only objective for organized 
crime is to make money and they don't care who consumes their 
product," he said.

Mark McLaughlin is the executive director of Crystal Meth British 
Columbia, a non-profit society educating youth about the dangers of 
methamphetamine drug use.

McLaughlin said meth gets cut into other street drugs like marijuana 
and ecstasy.

"Any pill or powder can have meth in it. It can be sprayed on 
marijuana . . . as a way to introduce people to meth and get them 
addicted to [it]."

Leslie Braithwaite is an addiction and trauma counselor and the 
program co-ordinator of the Abbotsford Addiction Centre, and said she 
is seeing more and more parents describing children with meth-like 
addiction symptoms coming in for counseling.

"[Children say] You know, it's not really like a drug, it's just marijuana.

"But, it isn't just marijuana anymore," she said.

Half a dozen kids found unconscious in a Victoria-area park almost 
died from overdosing on meth and were hospitalized for three days, 
McLaughlin said.

"These were children in Grade 6, 7 and 8. When the pills were 
analyzed, they were found out to be 100 per cent meth, sold [to these 
kids] as ecstasy."

Gross said the Victoria park overdoses involving children in Grade 6 
is not a one-off occurrence.

"We are seeing kids younger than 12 [for counseling]. It's impossible 
to know exactly what they're taking... It isn't an isolated incident. 
It's happening [in Abbotsford]."

Children start taking drugs to be included, Gross said.

"If there is a social group they want to belong to, and it involves 
drug use, they may be quite open to it. Kids want to belong and there 
are all kinds of things they can show that they belong," he said.

Filmmaker Andree Cazabon, a speaker at Wednesday's community drug 
forum, battled drug and alcohol addiction as a youth in the late 80s 
after being sexually abused when she was 12.

Cazabon fell into gangs and juvenile prostitution as a method of 
coping with what happened to her.

The drug trade needs young people to flourish, and the ideal addict 
is between the ages of 12 and 15, because that is when a developing 
brain is most likely to be addicted, she said, adding drug education 
must target younger children to stop kids from using.

"If we want to do any kind of prevention, we have to go into grades 
4, 5 and 6," Cazabon said.

"Because by the time kids reach grades 7 and 8 - for some of these 
kids - were talking about treatment."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom