I'm talking about the forgotten addicts of Red Deer and Central Alberta, our youth, and the need for a youth addictions treatment facility here.
We know we've got the problem. We just need help - provincial government funding help, whether that is via AADAC, Children's Services or Alberta Health.
Anyone who doesn't know there's a big problem with youth using street drugs in Red Deer hasn't talked to any young people lately, or has their head in clay.
Parents of addicted youth have recently formed a support group. They know very well the problem is here.
This isn't about kids being one toke over the line. It's about the use of dangerous addictives - heroin, crack cocaine and, in particular, crystal meth.
Crystal meth is such a dirty drug that provinces are bringing in measures to try to control its manufacture.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba announced this week that they will restrict the sale of 17 cold remedies. These products contain pseudoephedrine, the favourite ingredient in making crystal meth. Soon the products will be available only behind pharmacy counters and only 3,600 mg can be bought at one time.
Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario are considering similar action but have yet to take the plunge. Sooner rather than later would be good.
Some Alberta drugstores have placed the product behind counters or limited the amount on shelves.
The federal government has got on board by increasing penalties for people who push the drug.
Klein recently announced that his wife Colleen will head up a task force on crystal meth. That's good because it means the problem has his attention.
But do we have to wait for the task force's work to be done before pushing ahead with more treatment facilities, and more money for addiction counsellors and other front-line workers?
There is need now for treatment in Red Deer. It's where the difference will be made. In the trenches, working with youth, offering them a hand out of addiction hell.
Youth have always experimented, but with crystal meth they are unaware of how addictive it is until they've tried it. Then it's too late.
If we offer them serious help, not just pamphlets, there's a better chance they can leave a harmful lifestyle behind and still have a promising future.
TV ads won't help these kids. In-house treatment will. And after that there must be follow-up treatment available.
Red Deer was overlooked in the last provincial budget despite a call by Red Deer North MLA Mary Anne Jablonski for a youth addictions treatment facility here.
Edmonton and Calgary got funding, via AADAC, for four detoxification beds and eight residential treatment beds each.
AADAC recently spent $450,000 for a couple of mediocre TV ads aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of crystal meth.
Too bad the ads didn't show the holes in brains, people picking crystal deposit scabs off their faces and eating them to try to get high, or kids trading their dearest possessions or doing break and enters so they can get more of the drug.
Spend the money on treatment instead.
Often cut into other street drugs such as ecstasy, crystal meth is cheap and anyone can manufacture it.
Task forces, restricting access to the ingredients and Alberta's plan to bring in a law allowing it to seize children from parents who are either addicted to drugs or involved in the drug trade are part of the attack, but they aren't all of it.
And the latter, seizing children, will likely undergo a constitutional challenge. Besides, you can't force someone out of addiction. They have to want out.
People will still use drugs and they will find ways to make them and buy them, whatever obstacles are in the way.
When the time comes that they do want out, treatment is the answer. And the younger they are, they better the chance that they will successfully beat the addiction.
Treatment will not only save lives, it will save lifetimes of money in health care, policing, courts, as well as the immeasurable costs felt by the families of those addicted.
In 2006, AADAC is expected to implement legislation started by Jablonski allowing for mandatory assessment and detoxification for drug-addicted youth.
Parents will be able force their children into drug detox facilities against their will. Youths will spend five days in detoxification and assessment before being free to leave.
The Edmonton and Calgary beds now being funded are for voluntary clients. Where will the involuntary kids go?
The legislation isn't worth spit if there's nowhere to treat these people.
This city needs an addictions treatment centre for young people.
If there's any doubt, ask any one of the families now witnessing a child being taken from them by crystal meth.
