The growing popularity of crystal meth can be partly traced to the Internet, a doctor working with young addicts says. 

Dr.  Doug McGhee, a family physician in Victoria, B.C., said the recipe to create crystal meth or methamphetamine, has been around for 111 years. 

Information about it was difficult to disseminate until lately, McGhee told 120 health care workers on Thursday at the Black Knight Inn. 

However, in the last few years the growth of Internet use has afforded people ready access to information on how to manufacture it more cheaply. 

"There are chat rooms out there on how to solve your problems while you're cooking it."

He said people are constantly exchanging information about adding this or that to make it cheaper with various substitutes. 

He said the exchange of information has allowed producers to make it more powerful. 

Today's crystal meth is different from speed of the 1970s because it can be smoked and is two and a half times more pure. 

"These things make crystal meth more addictive."

He said it's about as addictive as crack cocaine. 

Worldwide, he said crystal meth has about 35 million abusers, which is more than cocaine and heroin combined. 

Use in Canada is catching up to the rest of the world, McGhee told the seminar sponsored by the David Thompson Health Region and the Canadian Mental Health Association. 

McGhee said a study in Vancouver discovered that crystal meth was a component found in two-thirds of Ecstasy tablets confiscated by police in 2003. 

McGhee said that his surveys at a detox centre in Victoria found that almost two-thirds of admissions are for crystal meth addiction.  Four years ago, only 11 per cent of admissions were for crystal meth. 

He said a 2002 study in the B.C.  lower mainland of 1,900 youth of average age 17, found that almost one in five had tried crystal meth. 

A 2003 survey of 940 youths in Vancouver and Victoria comparing high school and vulnerable youths revealed that 10 per cent of high school students and 70 per cent of vulnerable kids used crystal meth. 

He said frequent use may cause irritability, violence, hallucinations and paranoia.  High doses of crystal meth cause brain damage that may be permanent.  Repeated use of high doses may impair memory, abstract thinking and task shifting. 

Users may also find themselves scratching their skin to remove shards of crystal meth they believe are oozing out. 

He said as many as 10 per cent of users become psychotic. 

Serious physical problems including seizures, stroke and death occur with crystal meth use but less often than with cocaine abuse. 

McGhee said people who smoke crystal meth often have severe dental problems and skin lesions. 

The drug may also be injected, eaten, snorted or inserted into the vagina or rectum, which gives a user faster results. 

McGhee said there's no current drug to help addicts defeat dependency such as methadone for heroin. 

However, studies are underway for treatment of long-term dependence with new anti-psychotic drugs.