Research done by the Living Positive Resource Centre shows crystal meth may not rear its head before police and school officials, but Kelowna teenagers are using. "We know that crystal meth is not the current drug of choice, at least that's what we're being told. On the streets it's about 20 per cent and we believe it's growing," said LPRC executive director Daryle Roberts in his opening speech to the crystal meth task force meeting.
Recently released figures from Kelowna RCMP show crystal meth has not been an issue in drug busts or a major factor in arrests.
But at the street level local teens say it's being used, according to Paula Penticost, an LPRC researcher who organized Friday's meeting.
Penticost has been working with a local addict who introduced himself during Friday's task force meeting as a former addict and dealer.
"I know crystal meth is out there," said Sean F., who asks that his last name not be used.
Sean spoke with the Capital News for a Feb. 8 story in response to comments made last month by Mayor Sharon Shepherd, local school board officials and the Drug Abuse Resistance Education cops indicating the drug has not hit Kelowna in significant amounts as yet.
Forming a focus group at the Kelowna Jaycee's Downtown Youth Centre, Penticost, Sean and four UBCO nursing students said youths they spoke with laughed at adult assertions meth use is not a major problem.
"It is a problem already," said Penticost. "( Sean ) is talking to 12- and 13-year-old kids who are doing meth three times a week and they think it's a blast."
Largely 13 to 15 years old, the youth who showed up for the first free pizza drop-in were either not in school or attended Storefront or Central School, alternative education sites offered by the Central Okanagan School District. "Kids that are using crystal meth probably don't go to school everyday. They aren't in the regular mainline education system," said Penticost.
Doing her own canvassing, Penticost said representatives from the Adolescent Residential Care program in downtown Kelowna recorded 40 per cent of their intakes had used crystal meth in 2004-05, although it was usually not their drug of choice.
And then there is the meth use that cannot be detected. Some 60 per cent of ecstasy seized in B.C. last year contained traces of crystal meth, she points out.
