Meth dialogue must be followed by action By: Editorial Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/10/2018 (2165 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

First, the good news: the three levels of government are collaborating to respond to Manitoba’s methamphetamine crisis. Now, the bad news: they won’t find a simple solution.

City council provided the initiative by forming a meth task force “with a mandate to identify prevention and treatment strategies.” Representatives of the provincial and federal governments joined the talks in recent days.

The presence of all three levels of government might reassure the public, most of whom apparently feel endangered by people high on meth. A recent poll, commissioned by the Free Press and CTV, revealed roughly eight out of 10 residents worry the proliferation of meth on the streets of Winnipeg will put them in personal danger.

Clearly, citizens want something done about meth. But what to do?

Some places experiencing meth crises similar to Manitoba’s current scourge have tried restricting pseudoephedrine, a key meth ingredient. Restrictions must be imposed cautiously, however, because many people use pseudoephedrine lawfully, in small doses, to treat the symptoms of colds and allergies with products such as Sudafed.

Anti-meth campaigns in some places, including Oregon, have included extreme measures such as requiring a doctor’s prescription to buy drugstore decongestants containing pseudoephedrine. While Manitoba hasn’t gone that far, it toughened restrictions considerably in 2005, so medications with pseudoephedrine are only available behind the counter at pharmacies, with restrictions on the amount that can be bought at one time.

Making it harder to buy large amounts of pseudoephedrine has helped reduce the number of illegal meth labs in Manitoba. The type of homemade meth operations glamorized in the early seasons of the TV show Breaking Bad, in which criminals could secretly cook meth in a house or a trailer, have declined considerably because it’s far easier to import large quantities of meth from other locales, most notably Mexico.

While measures to root out the drug at international border crossings can be bolstered, it’s important that the meth task force also look at treatment of users caught in the devastating addiction of a drug that can cause irreversible harm.

An intriguing concept to explore is the “Angel” program initiated by police in Gloucester, Mass. Versions of it have since been adopted by more than 400 police departments across the U.S.

The aim of the program is progressive: treat them, don’t jail them. Users who turn themselves in at a police station, even those who are high and in possession of the illegal drug, are taken to a hospital. They’re then matched with a person who is their one-on-one “angel” and escorts them as soon as possible into treatment. The “angels” are volunteers who generally have some professional experience, including health-care workers, social workers and police.

The Manitoba task force should explore the success rate of U.S. jurisdictions that treat meth addicts like sick people who need an “angel,” instead of like criminals. Of course, this plan requires adequate treatment facilities. The Manitoba government has recently opened Rapid Access to Addictions Medicine clinics and added six mental-health beds to Health Sciences Centre, but the scope of Manitoba’s meth crisis is overwhelming the province’s existing resources.

Premier Brian Pallister spoke out last week on the meth crisis with a message for front-line health workers concerned about their safety because of violent meth users who turn up in hospital emergency rooms.

“We’re on this,” the premier declared. Manitobans will remember his pledge, and will expect to see those emphatic words backed by decisive action.