Pubdate: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 Source: Campbell River Mirror (CN BC) Copyright: 2004 Campbell River Mirror Contact: http://www.campbellrivermirror.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1380 Author: Mary Rody-Ryburn Note: Author is Oregon 911 Dispatcher for Washington County Sheriff's Office Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1197/a06.html I HAVE WATCHED CRYSTAL METH RUIN LIVES While on vacation visiting my parents (I grew up here) I read the Aug. 18 edition of your paper. I'm writing regarding Alli Vail's article on Crystal Meth. I'm angered that the article told me how the high is better and cheaper than cocaine, yet two tiny paragraphs at the end was all that was said about what it will do to the person and their community. What was not mentioned is what it will do to your neighbourhood and home, your family and friends. Meth will affect you personally and you don't have to use it. One meth lab in a neighbourhood will affect the property value of every home. Meth labs are hazardous waste sites. Police and clean up crews don protective "spaceman" suits before they will even enter the house! (To protect them from the chemicals users willingly put in their bodies-) Meth lab homes can (and do) literally blow up, and if the home is still inhabitable, it has to be stripped to bare studs and re-done. The chemicals can contaminate soil in your neighbourhood (clandestine chemical dumps,) not to mention the undesirable traffic it will expose you and your children to. Meth is the "poor man's cocaine." Every single ingredient can be purchased in your town (or stolen which will be another effect on Campbell River). In 10 years of law enforcement experience, I have personally watched it ruin peoples' lives. Including innocent victims of stolen mail, identity theft and fraud that seems to go hand in hand with the "smart and sexy euphoria" that meth gives. Families are destroyed by out of control users that literally tear homes apart and physically harm loved ones. Meth ages its users at an alarmingly high rate. Mental and physical degradation happens within a very short time of using, and it is highly addictive. As for "bugs under the skin," this is the chemicals escaping the body, in the form of bubbles on the skin which are then picked at. Wounds and scabs are constant because the chemicals ooze out of the sores. I guarantee it will affect you. Please inform yourselves. And to think it won't affect me is an ignorant approach to an epidemic that will affect you. Mary Rody-Ryburn, Forest Grove, Oregon 911 Dispatcher for Washington County Sheriff's Office (and surrounding agencies). - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin