WHEREAS communities in British Columbia continue to battle the effects of the use of crystal methamphetamine in their communities; AND WHEREAS the Province of British Columbia in past provided funding to local governments for education programs to address the impacts of the use of crystal methamphetamine: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities request that the provincial government reinstate program funding for local government response to problems associated with the production and use of crystal methamphetamine.
MINISTRY OF PUBLIC SAFETY SOLICITOR GENERAL Since 2005, the Province of British Columbia has provided 7 million of funding to target crystal meth use and production in this province. Nearly 2 million of these funds were provincial grants to communities across the province to assist their response to crystal methamphetamine. A total of 190 communities across the province benefited from the grants which funded local prevention, outreach and education activities. The Province continues to support community-based prevention efforts and public awareness of the dangers of methamphetamine and other addictive drugs. These efforts include school-based prevention programming, funding for treatment and provincial legislative initiatives targeting illegal drug production. Independent research studies have indicated that methamphetamine use amongst mainstream youth in British Columbia has fallen and is currently at 2 of the youth in school population.