CRYSTAL METH MORE DANGEROUS THAN ONE MIGHT THINK

If you are a teen, or anyone for that matter, who is thinking of
experimenting with some drug like ecstasy, pot or cocaine - don't.

These days any street drug is just as likely to be laced with crystal
meth as not. And the crystal meth of today is a quickly addictive,
body ravaging, killer drug like no other on the black market.

That was one of the messages that came through loud and clear in the
presentations made to high school students and the public by the
Crystal Meth Victoria Society members in Williams Lake Monday.

Society president and founder Mark McLaughlin said crystal meth has
been around for 100 years but the recipe for crystal meth that has
been circulating for the past 15 years or so is like no other.

Crystal meth is many times more addictive than marijuana, cocaine, or
heroin. Some people are hooked the first time they try it. Some people
die the first time they try it, as one girl did in Victoria,
McLaughlin said.

He said dealers, who are often crystal meth users themselves, lace
other drugs with crystal meth in order to secure more clients. Users
also often end up stealing and prostituting themselves to get the
drug, McLaughlin said.

"Meth just wants more meth. It doesn't care about anything else. Meth
doesn't care about friends, family, possessions, tomorrow or your
life," McLaughlin said.

Williams Lake Safer Communities Coordinator Cricket Testawich says
crystal meth is definitely here in Williams Lake and traces of crystal
meth have been found in marijuana, ecstasy, and crack cocaine that has
been seized by the RCMP in this area.

"People think they are getting one thing, but in reality they are
getting something else," Testawich says.

She says dealers cut crystal meth into other drugs to make those drugs
cheaper and more addictive.

The Crystal Meth Victoria Society's presentation was sponsored in
Williams Lake Monday by the Williams Lake Chapter of MADD Canada,
Community Policing and Crime Stoppers.

About 25 people turned out for the public meeting Monday evening at
city hall and approximately 650 students at Columneetza and Williams
Lake secondary schools saw the presentation during the day.

"At Williams Lake Secondary you could hear a pin drop during the
presentation," Testawich said. After the presentations she said there
were also lots of questions from the youth.

She said bringing the presentation to Williams Lake was an opportunity
to work on preventing crystal meth from becoming the huge problem it
has become among youth on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.

The powerful video Death by Jib drove home the point. In one scene the
videographer followed paramedics to a home where a crystal meth user
had overdosed and ended up in the morgue. Other scenes they showed how
crystal meth destroys the teeth, emaciates the body, causes sores,
shrivels the brain and causes erratic and irrational behavior.

The teens and youth telling their stories in the video talked about
losing years of their childhood to the drug, lost dreams, about
paranoia and hallucinations, and how hard it is to kick the drug that
they soon find out is killing them.

McLaughlin said he and his wife formed the Crystal Meth Victoria
Society after searching for help for one of their children who had
become involved with crystal meth.

He said they didn't find a lot of help in the way of detox and
treatment centres but what they did find were a lot of other parents
like themselves who were looking for ways to help their own children
get off crystal meth.

Michelle Cooper, a student from the University of Victoria who helped
to make the presentation, said she didn't realize when she first
started work with street youth in Victoria that most of them were
using crystal meth. She also talked about the poisonous substances
used in cooking crystal meth --- including kitty litter as a filter,
charcoal briquettes, Sudafed, camping fuel, acetone, antifreeze, nail
polish remover, rat poison.

The presentation included signs to look for in crystal meth users such
as agitation, inability to sleep then sleeping too much, and rapid
weight loss. Also signs to look for in a house where crystal meth is
being made such as covered windows, people eating outside, people
coming and going.

Testawich says that as a follow up to the presentations students will
be given surveys to fill out anonymously which ask about drug use in
their schools.

"It's an opportunity right now to be in the prevention stage,"
Testawich says.