Pubdate: Mon, 18 Feb 2008
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Copyright: 2008 Telegraph Group Limited
Contact:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/114

CRYSTAL METH - A MENACE THAT'S CRYSTAL CLEAR

As a drug more dangerous than crack hits Britain,  Cassandra Jardine
talks to a family it nearly destroyed

Nic Sheff was 17 when he first tried crystal meth. He'd  been warned
about heroin but didn't know about this new  drug. "Someone said he
had some speed and I thought it  was just an upper. I had no idea what
I was getting  into."

Previously, he had been in trouble for getting drunk  and smoking
cannabis, but he'd continued to do well  academically and was in the
school swimming team at his  Californian high school. Once crystal
meth entered his  life, all semblance of normality vanished. Soon he
was  living on the streets, popping home only to steal from  his
parents and younger siblings, dealing drugs and  prostituting himself
to get the next high.

Crystal meth - variously known as Tina, tweak, speed  and ice - is a
known menace in America and Australia.  Worldwide, it is estimated to
have 35 million users -  five times as many as heroin - and it is now
beginning  to cause havoc in Britain. It was reclassified as a  Class
A drug in January 2007, and on Friday the  Association of Chief Police
Officers predicted that it  could be as big a problem here as crack
cocaine within  four years.

David Sheff, Nic's father, was as ignorant as his son  about the drug
on the night that he found him hiding  behind some bins in a
backstreet. He began researching  whatever it was that had turned Nic
into a trembling  wraith.

Crystal meth is a type of amphetamine, made from  pseudo-ephedrine, an
active ingredient in  decongestants, and is smoked or injected. The
Japanese  and Germans used it during the Second World War to  increase
stamina, and Hitler is said to have injected  it daily.

It spread across America in the 1990s and is gaining  ground elsewhere
because it gives a longer high than  cocaine. The havoc it wreaks is
also worse. Before and  after pictures of users show young people
transformed  into emaciated figures as they become addicted to a  drug
that can keep them awake for a fortnight, induces  paranoia, burns out
nerve endings in the brain, causes  heart attacks, and damages the
kidneys.

"It makes crack cocaine look like a Hershey bar,"  according to a New
York police chief invited to speak  to MPs.

Nic was lucky. He survived the three occasions on which  he was rushed
to hospital, and has escaped with only  scars on his arms. But fearing
that every phone call  would bring news of his son's death, David
would often  sit through the night writing a diary. In those hours,
he wondered where he had gone wrong. Had Nic's  childhood turned him
into a drug addict? Had he done  the right thing as he saw his son
going off the rails?  Those thoughts have now become a book that will
speak  to any parent with an addicted child.

His account can be read alongside Nic's own version of  events, in
which he describes the endless hunt for new  highs, the crazed sex
sessions that followed, his plans  to become a big-time dealer and,
finally, the  psychological treatment in November 2005, probing the
reasons behind his addiction, which worked after four  other
programmes had not.

David was shocked by his son's experiences: "The risks  he took were
unimaginable, far more horrific than my  most horrific fantasies." He
was also surprised by  Nic's failure to realise that his actions had
hurt his  family. Nic was taken aback to learn of the pain he had
caused: "I had this sense of isolation. I felt that  what I did
wouldn't affect anyone."

In their books, they both tackle why Nic became hooked  on a series of
drugs, beginning with alcohol when he  was 12. His maternal
grandmother died of drink, so he  may have a gene that predisposed him
to addiction, but  David also fears that Nic's upbringing created
problems. As the child of divorced parents, he was  shuttled between
them; David's liberal parenting may  also have been a factor: "I
wanted him to be my friend.  I wasn't good at setting boundaries and
saying 'No'.  One of the shrinks I took him to said that I hadn't
given him enough to rebel against."

Nic agrees that there were problems, but says: "I don't  think that
anything my parents did made me a drug  addict. There was something
faulty in my brain. Others  may be able to do drink and drugs at
weekends, but I  couldn't stop."

The other question they address is how best to help an  addict. David
feels he didn't rush his son into rehab  soon enough: "The worry is
that you encourage rebellion  by over-reacting, but I now think it's
better than  under-reacting. Even if rehab doesn't work, it breaks
the cycle."

Nic agrees. Four rehabs failed but he thinks he needed  trial and
error. "A lot of my not using now has to do  with knowing what I'm
like, that if I have just one  glass of wine with friends, I'll be
drinking a bottle  of vodka by the end of the week. I've tried so many
  times to control my addictions, but I just can't. When  I was 17, I
wouldn't have known that."

His message to others is: "Get into treatment. If you  relapse, get
back into treatment. I used to think that  if I was having a bad day I
needed a fix to make it go  away. Now I know it will pass."
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MAP posted-by: Derek