The June 5 drug awareness meeting in Young follows hot on the heels of a recent “ice” round table discussion attended by 24 people representing service providers and interest groups in Young.
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At last week’s Young Shire Council meeting Councillor Ben Cooper commended Heather Ritchie for initiating the meeting.
“I certainly gained an insight into the challenges that these front line providers face in here in the community - that was the first thing,” Cr Cooper said.
“The other thing was that it was great to see such a strong network of people who are working hard to try and combat this hideous issue of drug use in our community.”
Cr Cooper said while generational drug abuse was discussed, he had a bigger concern about families going through first time drug issues.
“They want to know where they can seek help for themselves and their family members - and these are good hardworking families who have worked hard to bring their kids up in this town - they’re trying to deal with drug use for the first time,” he said.
The resurrection of a Community Drug Action Team involving all stakeholders, Cr Cooper said, was a good thing for the town.
“I can see some really great initiatives come out of that to tackle this problem in our town,” he said.
“We also had some statistics that were worrying - particularly these last couple of months have been a bad pattern in terms of drug use and ice use in the town - but everyone there is keen to tackle that issue, he added.
“Everyone said we need to start the community discussion about drugs here in town and any forum to do this should be welcomed and I know that CDAT, will in the future, hold events that look at this,” he said.
Cr Cooper asked that council support the June 5 meeting in waiving the hall and kitchen hire fees, a motion that had the entire support of council.
Councillor Brian Ingram also attended the round-table and said he had spoken with Nationals Senator Fiona Nash who’d recently been appointed to the national ice taskforce.
“We just touched base and she wanted to know our basic concerns and promised she would be back in touch when she was next in Young to discuss the overall plan and what can be instigated locally,” he told the meeting.
Impressed with the number of people at the round table discussion, Cr Ingram said he got the impression it had been somewhat of a rarity for them to get together and share knowledge and facts.
“So what happened [Tuesday] sharing figures and saying things other people didn’t know about - it was a really good meeting,” he said.
He said he felt the three pronged approach - police protection, the awareness and the education, “would let people know we do care - there are organisations they can seek, phone numbers they can call.”
“Everything that happens takes one thing, it takes money and we need Senator Nash on board to make sure this campaign works, we’re on it and we get our fair share,” Councillor Ingram said.
