Pubdate: Thu, 02 Jun 2005
Source: Lethbridge Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 The Lethbridge Herald
Contact:  http://www.mysouthernalberta.com/leth/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/239
Author: Stacy O'Brien
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

THE CRYSTAL METH THREAT

Alberta Needs To Take Action To Fight Fast-Growing Drug Problem, Says Expert

When Bill Tatton and his wife Nadine settled on a property just outside 
Fort Macleod nearly two years ago, they were looking for a place to 
semi-retire.

The Willow Creek twists around their acreage, where pelicans raise their 
young by the shores, alfalfa grows in the fields and red-winged blackbirds 
glide through the sky.

The couple raises quarter horses and Labradors and enjoys the country 
lifestyle to which they've recently returned.

As a neurologist and professor for over 30 years, Tatton has worked at some 
of the best hospitals and medical schools in North America including 
Stanford University, the University of Calgary, the University of Toronto 
and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

Much of his research has focused on diseases that affect the brain, 
including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and ALS -- better known as Lou 
Gehrig's disease.

In the early stages of his career in the late '60s and early '70s in 
Toronto, Tatton helped in a clinic, at times treating pregnant heroin addicts.

He never thought, going to a place like Fort Macleod, both his early and 
later experiences would be essential to what that community and others in 
southern Alberta are facing.

This past winter, Tatton began being contacted by a number of southern 
Alberta families -- 14 in all -- asking him how to deal with their 
children's methamphetamine addictions.

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive drug also known as crystal meth, ice, 
glass, tweak and crank. It's smoked, snorted or injected. Lethbridge 
regional police laid 18 meth trafficking charges last year, a staggering 
increase over just two charges in 2003.

"There is no other substance on earth addictive like methamphetamine," 
Tatton says. He explains people can become hooked after trying the drug 
just once.

He feels teenagers in junior high and high school are most susceptible 
because of peer pressure. He explains it doesn't take long for a youth to 
move from sitting around with friends in a car and trying crystal meth for 
the first time to doing it every weekend and then finally going on a meth 
binge where they take it hourly for an extended period of time.

He says users at that point will be completely irrational, may hallucinate 
and ignore personal hygiene. Often they'll start obsessively repeating 
movements.

What scares him the most, though, isn't just the speed and frequency with 
which people become addicted but what the drug does to the brains of 
crystal meth users after a short amount of time.

Tatton says a recent study found former crystal meth users who stopped 
using the drug still had more brain cell damage than early-stage 
Alzheimer's patients. He explains that, unlike other drugs, the 
after-effects of crystal meth to the brain appear to be irreversible.

"It already looks like we will have a large group of people that will need 
to join the Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients but they won't be older 
than 30 or 40," Tatton says.

He feels counselling a few times a week isn't sufficient to get people to 
stop using crystal meth. "There is a need for a new and separate approach."

At an annual meeting of western premiers and territorial leaders in early 
May, they agreed the country needs a comprehensive strategy to deal with 
the production, trafficking and after-effects of crystal meth.

Tatton says some provinces have taken action and he questions why Alberta 
hasn't done the same. Recently he has been meeting with MLAs and MPs on the 
issue.

"What we need to do -- like Saskatchewan and British Columbia -- is to 
separate our methamphetamine program from other programs," Tatton says. 
"It's different from gambling and alcohol addiction. It's much more severe 
than cocaine and smoking."

Tatton says he'd like to see the province create a task force made up of 
doctors, social workers, police and the judiciary to look at the complex 
issues surrounding crystal meth addiction.

Tatton feels an entirely different kind of program may be necessary to 
treat crystal meth users. He envisions a type of recreational facility set 
in the Waterton area where users would go for five to six weeks. They'd 
climb mountains, run along trails and ride horses. Tatton feels the 
facility could be run on private and government funding.

"It would be not just to get them (crystal meth users) through the period 
where they're trying to come off the drugs but to also change their view of 
themselves," Tatton says. He feels the program could strengthen the former 
users' confidence in themselves and their resolve not to use the drug again.

He feels parents don't have enough control over whether their children go 
into drug treatment.

A Tory backbencher's bill to enable parents to force their drug-addicted 
children into treatment received widespread support in the legislature but 
in March the provincial justice minister suggested the bill was too complex 
to be dealt with in a private member's bill. The provincial government 
would need to have the facilities and also deal with charter of rights 
questions before making such a move.

"If the Alberta government doesn't want the long-term problems associated 
with methamphetamine, we have to commit ourselves as a society," Tatton says.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth