Ottawa will pay to train hundreds of counsellors how to curb crystal meth abuse in First Nations communities across Canada, Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh has announced.
Dosanjh made the announcement in Regina, Saskatchewan on Friday.
The $851,000 in federal funding will be spent to train more than 340 aboriginal addictions counsellors and mental health workers how to deal with methamphetamine users.
Targeted at stopping crystal meth abuse in First Nations and Inuit communities countrywide, the 30-hour certification program will be taught at the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies.
In a prepared statement, the minister said this was an important step in his department's commitment to tackling substance abuse head-on.
"This project will have a far-reaching effect," Dosanjh said.
"By training these skilled and experienced community workers in the prevention of crystal meth abuse, we are strengthening our response to this very serious health threat."
In August, Dosanjh joined forces with cabinet colleagues Attorney General Irwin Cotler and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan to announce stiffer penalties for anyone caught holding, producing or trafficking the drug.
The drug was also upgraded to Schedule I of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, placing it in the same category as cocaine and heroin.
Considered a more pressing problem Western Canada, a study released in April concluded that while there is no actual crystal meth crisis in the West, use of the drug is rising and spreading eastward.
On Friday, Dosanjh reaffirmed Health Canada's plan to spend, over the next three years, more than $6 million of its $29-million Drug Strategy Community Initiatives Fund on anti-drug programs geared to the West.
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