PREVENTION KEY TO DRUG STRATEGY

Prevention must be central to a national drug strategy, speakers told a
parliamentary committee on Thursday.

"We believe prevention is the first line of defence," said Abbotsford
school trustee Joanne Field.

A comprehensive drug strategy, similar to the anti-smoking campaign is a
way to go, suggested some of people who spoke to the parliamentary
committee studying the non-medical use of drugs.

The MPs, including Langley-Abbotsford MP Randy White, toured Matsqui
Institution and Teen Challenge, a substance abuse rehabilitation centre for
youth, before listening to some 15 people speak at Garden Park Tower about
the drug problem in the Fraser Valley.

While people need to be deterred from using drugs, resources are also
needed to treat people when they are ready to quit.

"Several times I was on the streets and wanted help, and I was told 'Wait
five months,'" recovered addict Jamie Hamilton said. "Tomorrow is too
late." Langley's Campbell Valley Women's Centre has a 15-bed capacity, but
only four beds are funded.

Abbotsford Addiction Centre had a wait list of more than 100 individuals
over the summer, said clinical director Sharline Avery.

"We want to help people," said Avery. "We just don't have the resources we
need."

"Because detox facilities are not available when needed, we are all
affected," said Uultsje De Jong of the Abbotsford detox steering committee.
"In the Lower Mainland there are 47 treatment beds available for youth. "Of
the 47 beds available, a number of these are blocked by First Nations,
Corrections and the Ministry of Children and Family [Development], again
reducing the amount of beds available for those in crisis who do not meet
the criteria."

An effective drug strategy will only come if its approached from a holistic
point of view, said De Jong. That also includes stricter enforcement of
laws, developing more early intervention in schools, educating parents
While more funding for treatment is needed, speakers agree, the idea of
safe injection sites and needle exchanges weren't as widely accepted.

"A clean needle can kill, just like a dirty one," said Abbotsford downtown
business association executive director Mary Reeves.

But Hamilton is thankful for the needle exchange, being disease-free
because of it. Also debatable among the speakers was whether marijuana was
addictive. Two recovered addicted speaking to the federal representatives
say it is, but Dana Larsen, editor of Cannabis Culture, said "We're not
addicts. We're tired of being criminalized."

He suggests the police crackdown on marijuana grow operations is a
"horrible misdirection of resources."

The meeting was part of the Commons committee's week-long B.C. visit.
Information from this meeting, and many other across the country, will be
used to create a national drug strategy, scheduled for completion in about
a year.