After over a year of informational campaigning, the Moose Jaw Crystal Meth Strategy Committee (MJCMSC) is coming to an end.

The committee came together in 2019 but their awareness campaign kicked off in February of this year. The MJCMSC had a mission to spread awareness on the dangers of crystal meth but also to advocate for people who are fighting addiction and the stigma they face.

"Addiction can happen to anybody and when we become more aware of the science of addiction, we can become more compassionate and understanding to the people who are affected. Because nobody asks to be addicted," says Mary Lee Booth, the campaign coordinator.

The committee's main goals were to educate the public and hopefully prevent people from trying the drug in the first place. They also were trying to educate people who are using the drug about how dangerous it is and how it physically affects the body, brain, and alters behaviour.

"The main message is simply to provide information so people can make a much more well-informed decision on whether to first of all try drugs. Secondly, if people are already into crystal meth or any other drug for that matter, it's to recognize some of the indicators so that if you have someone near and dear to you, perhaps you can keep up on some of the tendencies that are shared in (the movie) Stop Mething Around... it can alert families and friends, and near and dear people to reach out and provide a resource to help those people that have made a choice that can possibly be corrected," says Superintendent Devon Oleniuk of the Moose Jaw Police Service, who is also the Chair of MJCMSC.

However, the committee didn't want to just talk about using the drug; they also wanted to educate people on addiction. One of the main topics throughout the campaign was the stigma around drug users. People fighting with addiction are often stereotyped and alienated. Therefore, when they are trying to seek out help, they experience a lack of empathy and even resistance.

To spread these messages, the MJCMSC released multiple initiatives to reach out to the public. The committee originally wanted to do mostly in-person events.

"We weren't able to be in-person as much as we had preferred and hoped to do. However, with juggling the COVID regulations and rules and public health orders, we were able to, this year, in particular, get into some schools and public speaking areas," says Oleniuk.

Instead, the MJCMSC has hosted multiple virtual presentations that advise on how to handle a loved one fighting addiction, how parents can talk to their kids about drugs, and information sessions tailored to youth learning. They were also able to host a few in-person information sessions.

The committee recruited a young woman named Meagan Jasper to be a speaker at these sessions and she had the chance to go into dozens of classrooms around Moose Jaw to share her experience of battling her addiction with crystal meth and her recovery journey. Around 600 students had the opportunity to hear about Jasper's journey and be educated from her real-life experience. The committee also released 2 educational films with Shaw Spotlight. The first was Stop Mething Around and the second was Stop Mething Around: A Family Affair. Both movies showcase real-life experiences of people who are fighting addiction or are in the recovery stages and people who are on the front lines fighting the opioid crisis. The second film has more of a focus on dealing with drug addiction in a family setting.

Booth says she's satisfied with what the MJCMSC has accomplished, "I do believe that we have met the goal of better-informed community members. So, people now know what crystal meth is, what it looks like, what it does, and the dangers of it."

You can still find the committee's presentations, information packages, and both of their films on their page on the Hope Summit website. All this and their other initiatives can be found on their Facebook page. MJCMSC won't be doing a year-end event but they're planning to publish links and information to other resources and services that people can go to help.