The McCready Centre was buzzing Monday evening as local parents and youth heard some harrowing tales of drug use and abuse from RCMP and AADAC officials.

More than 80 people were in the crowd to hear presentations on addictive substances, ask questions and make suggestions about how Jasper might deal with the problem of drugs in the community.

The forum centred on a discussion about stimulants, especially crystal meth and crack cocaine. Parents peppered the presenters with questions as they described some of the indicators that such drugs were being used and spoke of their prevalence in Jasper.

“It absolutely is here, there’s no doubt about it,” said Constable Pierre Seguin, describing the presence of crack cocaine in Jasper. “To tell you how much is actually in the town, well, I can’t.”

There is increasing crystal meth use here as well, added Constable Garrett Dueck.

“It’s in Jasper. For the first two-and-a-half years I was here I don’t recall any seizures of meth but in the last year alone we’ve had several,” he said.

As some in the audience wondered why more wasn’t being done to apprehend drug dealers and meth producers, Dueck said that effective policing involves a community effort.

“A lot of people have the misconception that everyone knows who is dealing the drugs,” he said. The police have to work through rules and procedures in order to make arrests or get warrants to search property and often rely on people in the community to make the observations that provide a basis for their investigations, he added.

“We cannot do it alone. The police cannot do it alone,” he said. “We need help from the community.”

Beyond the telltale chemical odour that defines burning crack or crystal meth, the presenters said that another clue that meth use might be occurring is the disappearance of light bulbs. Users smoke the meth in glass pipes in order to let it burn at a high temperature, AADAC’s Tasha Symon said, and light bulbs provide an easy, pre-formed source for pipe-making.

“It really is a truly good indication if there is use in your area, your home, your apartment building,” Seguin added.

Beyond the highly addictive qualities of stimulants like cocaine and crystal meth, a factor that causes significant concern to service providers is the ease of access to the latter drug in particular. Symon said that authorities were aware of a “cooking” operation going on in Edson.

Police have not discovered active or former meth labs in Jasper, Seguin said, pointing out that the volatile and toxic nature of the ingredients used to create batches of the drug leave behind stains and other obvious indicators.

“Hotel rooms are commonly used as labs because people can go in, make a batch and leave,” he said, adding that with so many hotel rooms and rental properties in town, there is the potential for meth production in Jasper.

The by-products of the creation process are highly toxic and are usually dumped into ditches or left sitting at the site, creating serious environmental hazards. People who suspect that they may know the location of a meth lab are advised not to enter the premises or area by themselves due to the risk of contamination.

“These people don’t care to dispose of things properly,” Seguin said.

Seguin had the audience squirming in discomfort and disgust as he gave a frank, visceral description of the physical impact of methamphetamine on addicts. As the toxins course through the user’s vascular system they will attempt to force their way out of the body, causing open sores to break out on the skin. When addicts are desperate for a fix, they may pick toxic crystals out of their sores, he said.

“The real hardcore addicts will put them back in the pipe and smoke them.”

Seguin admitted that the information was shocking, but said it was important for young people to realize the effects of a drug like crystal meth.

“It’s really the message that we have to get out there,” he said. At least one person in the audience agreed.

“It’s like going into the bathroom, looking at a bottle of draino and saying, I think I’ll take a shot of that,” said Maureen Murdoch, a Jasper lawyer who spoke about the devastating impacts of meth addiction she has witnessed in nearby communities like Hinton.

“I think it should be called draino death instead of crystal meth,” she said.

Symon cited statistics collected by the province that suggested that as many as 5.3 per cent of high-school-aged teenagers had used “club drugs” (crystal meth or ecstasy) in the past year. The survey was conducted in 2002 and new polling results are currently being processed that will attempt to measure levels of meth use more specifically. Drug concerns for families and communities do not begin and end with stimulants, Symon said.

The same survey indicated that 20.5 per cent of ninth graders in Alberta had smoked marijuana, a figure that rose to 41 per cent by Grade 10. 

“I think this is a significant problem,” Symon said. “It’s something we need to pay attention to in our community.”

The forum was intended as more than just a warning session about the dangers of drug use, and the latter part of the evening was devoted to an extended brainstorming session about possible strategies for prevention.

One idea brought up by young people and their parents alike was for the creation of a dedicated youth centre with regular hours and adult supervision. Such a facility might keep Jasper teenagers off the streets and occupied during their recreational time, proponents suggested.

Others raised the need for increased RCMP presence or the concept of a door-to-door information and awareness-raising campaign to reach as much of the community as possible. Some of the pros and cons of a municipal curfew were also discussed.

At the end of more than two hours of discussion, Symon said she was pleased by the progress that had been made.

“Obviously some really good discussion happened,” she said. “We’d like to start looking at action steps so we can see some change happening in the community.”

Murdoch was also pleased by the strong expression of interest from those in attendance.

“Hinton was a community that was blindsided by a drug (crystal meth)...and we have an opportunity to prevent that,” she said. “I’m really thankful that we are coming together as a community before it becomes a problem.”