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NO QUICK FIX FOR METH USERS

Police departments, health-care professionals and substance abuse counsellors are quick to agree that use of crystal methamphetamine in Greater Victoria is rapidly reaching epidemic proportions.

But there's no quick fix when it comes treating the growing number of people - especially youth - addicted to the drug.

Chris Goble, detox co-ordinator with the Victoria Youth Empowerment Society, said the five detox beds for teenage addicts that his organization operates are the only ones on Vancouver Island.

"We're it for the Island.  We're the only withdrawal program for kids," Goble said.

While the number of youth with substance abuse problems hasn't changed much since 2000, the proportion of youth addicted to crystal meth has shifted dramatically in the last five years.

In 2000-01, just 11 per cent of YES clients were addicted to crystal meth.  That jumped to 33 per cent the following year and 61 per cent 2004-05.

During that time, YES has treated close to 900 teenagers with substance abuse problems.

The demographics of meth use have also changed.  Five years ago, 70 to 80 per cent of users were males with an average age of 17.7.

Goble said half of all addicts are now young girls and that the average age has dropped to 16.3.

Goble said the change has complicated efforts to get kids off drugs.

"A number of issues come up.  One is the increase in mental health issues - paranoia, meth-induced psychosis and hallucinations," he said.

"When you have co-occurring disorders, it increases case management time, it increases co-ordination with regard to referrals and there's a high recidivism rate because people are unable or unwilling to commit to treatment."

Former Weekend Edition reporter Matthew Ramsey, who recently wrote a multi-part series on the drug, said opening more detox beds is essential if authorities are to effectively tackle the province's growing crystal meth problem.

"More rehab beds - that's the long and short of it.  We need more places to get people off of this stuff," he said.

The series notes that, as of 2003, 11 per cent of all admissions to community-addictions services in B.C.  were for meth misuse, up from four per cent in 1999.

According to coroners' statistics, crystal meth was found in the bodies of 33 people in B.C.  last year, more than double the number in 2003.

Ramsey, who now works for the Vancouver Province, will be among the panelists at a forum on the subject that is scheduled to take place Monday at Oak Bay high school.

The forum will include a screening of Death By Jib, a disturbing 18-minute film co-produced by Kevin Letourneau of Peace Arch Community Services and Coquitlam filmmaker Michael Neitzel, who also produced Wrath of the Dragon, a 1999 film about the stark realities of heroin addiction.

Vancouver Island Health Authority spokesperson Karin Heimlich said this week that health officials are working on a strategy to deal with youth addiction.

"We're doing an Island-wide review of youth addictions and obviously meth is a key concern in that review," Heimlich said.  "It's difficult to resource the problem because it's so vast."

Crystal meth treatment is complicated by the fact that existing facilities are so-called "medical detox beds," geared toward alcohol, heroin and cocaine addiction.

"Most of the priority population that would normally get a medical detox bed are those people who would be at risk of medical complications when detoxing," she said.

"Crystal meth does not require an acute-care bed.  They're not the priority client for those beds."

Victoria police Chief Paul Battershill said this week that the crystal meth outbreak is "probably leading to more knifepoint assaults during robberies."

But rather than treating people who are already addicted, Battershill said police are hoping to stop addiction before it starts.

"The biggest issue is public education and prevention.  People have to know that use of that particular drug is going to screw you up," Battershill said.

Monday's forum at Oak Bay high gets under way at 7 p.m.  Admission is free.