Pubdate: Fri, 01 Sep 2006
Source: Reader's Digest (Canada)
Copyright: 2006 Reader's Digest Association, Inc.
Contact: http://www.readersdigest.ca/lettereditor.html
Website: http://www.readersdigest.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3767
Author: Anne Mullens
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

THE DOUBLE DANGER OF CRYSTAL METH

It's Cheap, Easy To Make, Highly Addictive--And An Explosive Threat 
To Non-Users

Carolyn Beaudoin was a straight-A high-school student in Burnaby, 
B.C., when, at an all-night rave dance party, she tried crystal meth. 
It was the summer of 1999, and her then boyfriend said it would make 
her feel great.

Out of curiosity and a sense of youthful invincibility, she tried it. 
To this day she wishes to God she could take that decision back. "It 
was a terrible mistake," says Beaudoin, now 24. "I had no idea how 
bad it was, and how it would change my life."

Like many who try the powerful man-made stimulant, which has been 
sweeping across North America over the past decade, Beaudoin felt 
hooked on crystal meth after her first few hits. The surge of 
pleasure was so intense and the cravings so strong she had to 
experience it again. Soon she was doing it every day. The former 
student-council president who dreamed of becoming a doctor began 
missing so much school due to her drug use that she failed to 
graduate that year. She was hooked for almost two years. "All I cared 
about was where I was going to get the next hit."

She has now turned her life around, stayed clean for five years and 
earned a college degree.

But what distresses her most is that she believes crystal meth 
permanently altered her brain chemistry, leaving her susceptible to 
bouts of depression and to social isolation. "It changed who I am and 
how my brain works; I am not the same person," says Beaudoin, who 
warns high-school students not to make the same mistake she did. "It 
is putting poison in your body."

Crystal meth goes by many names: ice, glass, crank, chalk, jib, 
speed, the poor man's cocaine. Its scientific name is methamphetamine 
and it is a central-nervous-system stimulant closely related to 
amphetamine, causing extreme wakefulness, energy, euphoria and loss 
of appetite. Popular in the '60s as speed in pill form, it had a 
resurgence over the last decade in a smokable crystal form five times 
more potent.

Experts are divided about whether crystal-meth use has peaked and is 
now declining or whether it is poised to become an epidemic.

Former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell, now a senator, caused a stir 
last year when he claimed the threat of crystal meth was being overblown.

That view is shared by drug-addiction expert Timothy Stockwell, 
director of the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C. at the 
University of Victoria. "We have to keep all drug use in 
perspective--there are pockets of high crystal-meth use, but the 
average use in Canada is very low."

He notes that, in general, people who do crystal meth also tend to do 
other drugs such as ecstasy, alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, and 
focusing solely on crystal meth removes the common factors--and 
solutions--that underlie all drug-abuse problems.

But while others agree alcohol, heroin and cocaine still cause a 
greater amount of harm in Canada, they warn crystal meth has the 
potential to explode in this country because it is so cheap--a hit is 
about $10 to $15--the highs are several times longer than those of 
cocaine, and it is easily available from recipes on the Internet.

"We are sitting at a crossroads in Canada right now," warns Sgt. Doug 
Culver, national coordinator for Synthetic Drug Operations for the 
RCMP in Ottawa. "Either we get it under control or we risk the 
exponential growth in crystal-meth trafficking and use that we have 
seen in the States and some other countries."

Dan Mathieson, mayor of Stratford, Ont., agrees. His city, and the 
surrounding farming region of Perth County, saw a sudden huge 
increase in crystal-meth use and illegal-lab busts over the last two years.

Twelve of the 19 labs discovered in Ontario in an 18-month period 
were in Perth County. "Some say concerns over crystal meth are being 
blown out of proportion, but to me it is the No. 1 drug," says 
Mathieson. "Not only can it cause lasting harm to the individual who 
uses it but it can also harm innocent bystanders, especially those 
living near clandestine labs, which are highly toxic and dangerous 
because of explosions and fires."

Crystal meth's potential for physical damage is great, says Wende 
Wood, a psychiatric pharmacist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental 
Health in Toronto. The most disturbing are the possibility of 
irreversible brain damage, which can bring long-term depression, 
paranoia, psychosis or memory loss; and changes to the brain that 
mimic Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's. Recently St. Paul's 
Hospital in Vancouver opened a special 15-bed psychiatric-care ward 
largely to reduce the disruption caused by meth-induced psychosis in 
the emergency ward. "It's a huge medical problem because one in five 
heavy or chronic meth users will have periods of psychosis," says Dr. 
Bill MacEwan. "Some return again and again to the emergency ward, 
which is not a good place for them--or for the other patients--as 
they can be violent and psychotic."

Meth doesn't damage only the brain.

It can cause "meth mouth"--teeth rapidly darken, decay and fall out. 
Skin can become covered in scabs, caused by users scratching at bugs 
they imagine crawling on their skin. Extreme weight loss, 
malnutrition, and kidney, liver and heart damage are also common.

The craving for meth can be so powerful that former addicts are 
always at risk of relapsing--simply seeing drug paraphernalia, being 
in a familiar spot where they did meth or seeing others do it can 
spur a voracious craving. "Just thinking about meth can cause their 
blood pressure to spike, their skin to flush, their stomach to 
tighten and churn," says Dr. Alex Stalcup, a leading United 
States-based drug-treatment expert who was associated with the 
Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic and is the medical director of the New 
Leaf Treatment Centre in San Francisco.

One young woman who beat a crystal-meth addiction two years ago 
refused to talk about her experiences for this article for that very 
reason: simply talking about it might put her at risk of relapse.

She hit rock bottom in her early 20s, when she was arrested and 
served jail time for crystal-meth trafficking. She wanted to tell her 
story to warn others, but after careful reflection she refused. "I 
simply can't talk about it--it stirs up the feelings and cravings and 
makes me too vulnerable," says the woman, who is now doing well in 
college and fears going back to her old life.

Amphetamine was first synthesized by a Japanese chemist in 1919 and 
was widely used in low doses for the next four decades as a 
prescription drug for asthma, weight loss and narcolepsy--and given 
by German and American military in World War II to keep soldiers and 
pilots awake.

In the 1960s and '70s it flourished in pill form as "speed," giving 
rise to the name "speed freaks" for the mental changes, violent 
outbursts and twitchiness it often caused.

It faded from popular use in the mid-1970s, says Culver, but in the 
mid-1980s a smokable crystal form, much more potent than the pills, 
emerged. This version of methamphetamine is easily synthesized from 
common ingredients such as pseudoephedrine found in cold medicines; 
drain cleaner; paint thinner; lithium from batteries; and iodine.

In Canada the biggest producers of crystal meth are biker gangs and 
organized crime, particularly Asian gangs, who run large clandestine 
chemical labs. Just one or two people who know how to cook batches 
can bring a problem to a community, especially if they teach others 
how to make it, says Culver.

Crystal-meth labs are so toxic they pose health threats not only to 
the "cooks" but to their families, particularly children who may be 
in the house; the public who live around them; and the first 
responders to the scene, such as police, firefighters and ambulance 
workers. "Whole houses can be obliterated in an explosion," says 
Culver. (Quebec has the highest number of fires due to crystal meth.) 
Many crystal-meth labs are discovered when firefighters respond to an 
explosion or flash fire ignited by the volatile chemical ingredients 
used to brew the drug. Cleanup of the labs is difficult, requiring 
trained teams wearing Hazmat protection suits and can take several 
days, exposing the workers to a slew of toxic chemicals.

For every kilogram of crystal meth made, between five and seven 
kilograms of toxic waste is produced, enough to "pose an 
environmental or public-health hazard," says Dr. Rosana Pellizzari, 
medical-health officer for Perth County. The chemicals are usually 
dumped in farmers' fields, landfills or vacant lots, potentially 
harming any living thing that comes near or leaching into the local 
water system. "In Stratford, we had an incident where they were 
dumped at a park in the heart of our city," adds Pellizzari.

"Crystal meth is such a complex problem that it has to be attacked on 
many fronts," says Gordon Robson, the mayor of Maple Ridge, B.C., who 
four years ago spearheaded a task force to combat crystal-meth use on 
three fronts: youth education and community awareness, increased 
enforcement, and expanded drug-rehabilitation services.

The meth problem in Maple Ridge has greatly diminished, thanks to the 
coordinated effort, says Robson.

The Maple Ridge model is now being adopted by communities across 
Canada. Last year the B.C. government announced it would contribute 
more than $7 million to fight crystal meth. The federal government 
recently earmarked $851,000 to combat it in First Nation and Inuit 
communities and has increased maximum penalties for possession and trafficking.

Controlling the chemicals that make the drug is one way to control 
clandestine labs and the supply on the street.

Most large meth labs, run by organized crime, purchase bulk supplies 
of the precursor ingredients such as ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and 
red phosphorus from chemical manufacturers--usually by posing as 
legitimate buyers--notes Culver.

In 2003 the RCMP established the National Chemical Precursor 
Diversion Program, an initiative that works with the chemical 
industry and NDMAC, an organization representing nonprescription-drug 
manufacturers in Canada, to spot and prevent suspicious transactions. 
"That program is helping restrict the availability of bulk supplies," 
says Culver.

A program in Canada called Meth Watch aims to curtail the ability of 
would-be cooks in mini-labs to get ingredients off hardware and 
drugstore shelves.

Theft or purchase of items such as cold and allergy medicine 
containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine, matchbooks (for the red 
phosphorus on the strike pads), acetone, starter fluid, drain 
cleaner, coffee filters and other items can alert retail staff that 
meth is being cooked.

"Just knowing that someone may be watching and reporting the activity 
can curtail some of the activity," notes Gerry Harrington of NDMAC.

Carolyn Beaudoin now speaks to school groups and at drug-awareness 
conferences about the dangers and impact of crystal meth. Her main 
message: "Don't think it can't happen to you, that you can try it 
once and be okay. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone." 
And yes, those first few times were fun. "But it wasn't worth it," 
she says. "Nothing would ever be worth what crystal meth takes away from you."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman