December 10, 2007
Media contact: Anne Russell
604-795-2826
or 604-504-7441, local 2826
Cell: 604-798-3709
anne.russell@ucfv.ca

UCFV/Chilliwack report recommends community approach to crystal meth problem

Crystal meth use is a phenomenon with all sorts of spinoff effects. It has a negative impact on people who become addicted to it, but also hurts their families and their communities. Crime rates rise as addicts resort to criminal behaviour to make money for their next fix. Neighbourhoods become less safe when meth labs or drug-dealing houses are set up.

Knowing that the drug poses many social problems, the City of Chilliwack recently commissioned the University College of the Fraser Valley to produce a report on best practices for dealing with the social impacts of crystal meth use.
The report: Responding to the Dangers of Methamphetamine: Towards Informed Practices, was produced by Amanda McCormick, a PhD student and researcher with the BC Centre for Social Responsibility (which is housed at UCFV), along with professors Darryl Plecas and Irwin Cohen, under the auspices of the Centre for Criminal Justice Research. Funding was provided by the provincial government through the Union of BC Municipalities.

The report makes recommendations about drug awareness and prevention; how best to deal with children of arrested meth users and producers; what to do about housing that has been used for meth production or dealing; how agencies can work together in partnerships; how to evaluate treatment programs; and how to increase awareness about the ingredients that are used in meth production in order to make their procurement more difficult or provide clues about meth lab whereabouts.

UCFV’s Darryl Plecas, who holds the RCMP Research Chair in Crime Reduction, says that the key finding of the report is that the approach to take is to treat the meth problem as a broadly based, community-focused, multi-faceted one, not just a criminal one.

“That means that the education, health, social services, fire, emergency response, retail, and safety sectors all have a role to play in combating the problem,” he said. “For example, when we look at controlling precursor ingredient procurement, that issue involves retailers, in that they can recognize when someone is amassing large amounts of ingredients. It involves fire and safety officials, as these operations tend to be a fire risk to the community.

“On the prevention front, schools, health workers, and social services agencies all have a role to play. And first responders need to be aware that they can do something more than simply arresting people.”

Plecas praises the City of Chilliwack for being forward-thinking enough to have a public safety advisory committee, and for commissioning the report. Several UCFV alumni, including Sherry Mumford of Fraser Health and Robert Carnegie of the City of Chilliwack, are on the committee.

“Chilliwack approached this report in such a way that the end product is helpful to communities anywhere. This project was a great illustration of the approach we in the criminology department at UCFV like to take where we offer our expertise in order to be of service to a community, and to involve students in the research.”

Chilliwack Mayor Clint Hames said that his city commissioned the report because they realized crystal meth is a problem with many “downstream” effects.

“We wanted to examine best practices in terms of community response to this problem and find out how we could respond most effectively,” he said.

Hames added that the project was a strong example of a community and its local post-secondary institution working together.

“By combining forces with UCFV we received some very useful information and advice and made good use of resources available to us through the university college’s presence in our community.”

Councillor Sharon Gaetz chairs the Chilliwack Public Safety Advisory Committee and will be guiding the process of making aspects of the report operational.

“The committee will be convening in the new year to take a closer look at what it’s possible to do,” she said, adding that they encouraged the report’s authors to not be constrained by current legislation when making recommendations.

“Some of the recommendations they made would require legislative changes at the federal or provincial level, such as those involving seizing houses used for meth labs or removing children from homes found to be used as meth labs. Like the grow op report we commissioned Dr. Plecas to do in 2002, we will take the recommendations seriously and do our best to implement key ones.”

The report is being distributed to 185 local governments in B.C.

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