Methamphetamine Report for Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers Responsible for Justice

Section I – The Coordinating Committee of Senior Officials (CCSO) Drug Issues Working Group and its Mandate

The Working Group’s mandate is to provide a comprehensive overview of methamphetamine use in Canada and to make recommendations that will mitigate the prevalence of its production, trafficking, sale and use.

Co-chaired by British Columbia and Justice Canada, the Working Group consists of representatives from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Yukon and Public Safety Canada. The Working Group has also established linkages with Health Canada.

Originally conceived in 2002, the Working Group was established by Federal-Provincial- Territorial (FPT) Ministers to explore the issues related to the use, production and trafficking of illicit drugs and recommend ways to reduce the problem. In 2003, the FPT Deputy Ministers further expanded the focus of the group from solely marijuana grow-operations to include intoxicating inhalants and methamphetamine.

Following the directions of FPT Deputy Ministers in June 2005, the Working Group has collaborated with the National Coordinating Committee on Organized Crime (NCC) to address the production and trafficking of methamphetamine.

At the November 2005 meeting of FPT Ministers Responsible for Justice, the NCC tabled a national strategy for addressing marijuana grow operations and synthetic drug production. At this meeting, Ministers asked the Drug Issues Working Group to examine options for restricting the importation of bulk precursors into Canada. Ministers also noted the need for additional compliance officers for the enforcement of the Precursor Control Regulations (PCR).

In completing its work on methamphetamine, the Working Group has relied on the work of other national initiatives, including the development of the National Framework for Action to Reduce the Harms Associated with Alcohol, Other Drugs and Substances in Canada (National Framework for Action). Health Canada and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse held a series of roundtables at which federal, provincial, territorial, municipal and community stakeholders identified a number of common principles, goals and priorities to reduce the use and abuse of substances in Canada.