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."