LOCAL METH TASK FORCE SET TO STRATEGIZE
Provincial funding totalling $1 million for the Perth County Meth Task Force should be forthcoming in about two weeks and the first thing will be to bring the members together to plan the pilot project intended for province-wide use. Mayor Dan Mathieson, co-chair of the task force, said he has already been in contact with the University of Waterloo regarding playing a role through its masters programs in social work and public health, and he expects they will help in completing some of the work.
The funding was welcomed by the mayor and by task force co-chair Dr. Rosana Pellizzari, medical officer of health for Perth County.
"It's saying to me that our work has not gone unnoticed I think our work is paying off," said Dr. Pellizzari. Although there's still no provincewide strategy for dealing with crystal meth, she said, she is hopeful the task force here will be a leader and will assist the government in dealing with the problem.
Her own involvement in the pilot project, however, will be limited as she'll be moving on to a new public health position in Toronto at the end of April when her duties here end. She said she hopes that her replacement as medical officer of health will fill the gap.
Mayor Mathieson said he expects that by the beginning of May the task force will want to present its plan to the community and would then work through MPP John Wilkinson's office to eventually forward its work to the ministries of the Attorney General and Correctional Services.
The $1 million for the task force announced Friday by Mr. Wilkinson is pegged for a one-year pilot project that will include educational awareness, treatment and enforcement pertaining to methamphetamine manufacture and use.
The task force was established at the end of 2005 to combat a burgeoning meth problem in the county, evidenced by the discovery and dismantling of about 15 meth labs and several fires associated with making the illicit, highly addictive and dangerous drug. In announcing the funding, Mr. Wilkinson recalled that Perth County and Stratford had been given "a black eye" on the meth issue about a year ago.
"We're going to figure out how to run that drug out of this county," he said. In an interview he credited Monte Kwinter, the minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, and Finance Minister Greg Sorbara for supporting the project.
"There's a method to my madness," said Mr. Wilkinson, in bringing so many cabinet ministers to town. Mr. Kwinter was impressed with the community support shown for combating the meth problem. The government is hoping a solution will come from the task force and from what's known about the problem in the county.
In a press release, Dr. Pellizzari said Perth County has identified the major gaps and needs. "We have done our homework and we believe that any approach to substance use needs to include all four of Canada's national drug strategy pillars: prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction." She said the funding could be used in a number of ways.
Among them: * Set up prevention and treatment programs and good outpatient programs for those who want to kick the highly-addictive drug. * Figure out how to equip and train first-responders properly to deal with the labs and chemicals inside them. * Put in place a process to clean up the labs, the homes, land or farms after a bust. * Assess what can be done with the people - and often children - who are found living in the buildings where so-called cooks brew the toxic chemicals to make the drug.
Since it began in late 2005, the task force has lobbied for a provincial strategy on crystal meth and has taken steps locally to address research and service gaps, she said. Thirty major stakeholders, including police, locally and provincially elected officials, the health care sector, schools and mental health agencies have been working on the meth problem.
