PRAIRIES FINDING SOLUTIONS TO A METH PROBLEM

Two Years Ago, Communities Were Bracing For The Devastation Of A
'Common Curse.' But Now The Drug Has Vanished From Many Towns

Hardware store owners in Drayton Valley noticed it first.

In the late 1990s, a large number of light bulbs were being stolen.
Within months, it became obvious why: The booming oil town, southwest
of Edmonton, was the epicentre for a crystal methamphetamine crisis
that would soon spread across Alberta. Addicts were using light bulbs
as pipes to smoke the highly addictive, cheap and potent street drug
that could be cooked up using recipes scalped from the Internet.

The Prairies began bracing for a crystal-meth epidemic similar to one
that devastated the U.S. Midwest. The problem was forced to the top of
the political agenda, and by 2005, then-Saskatchewan premier Lorne
Calvert even called it a "common curse" for western provinces.

But two years later, the epidemic has not materialized and crystal
meth has largely disappeared in many Prairie communities, such as
Drayton Valley. Surprisingly, organized crime may get partial credit.

Alberta RCMP Sergeant Dave Elliott said it boils down to simple
economics: The powerful artificial stimulant isn't cost-effective for
many drug dealers.

"The dealers aren't stupid. They are businessmen," he said. "They
switched over because they made more off crack."

He explained that one hit of crystal meth could cost between $10 and
$15, with the high lasting up to 24 hours. However, crack cocaine
costs more than twice that amount, with the high lasting only about
three hours.

Sgt. Elliott, who is stationed in Bonnyville, Alta., a small oil town
north of Edmonton, said crack cocaine and cocaine are now rampant,
although alcohol and marijuana remain more popular across the province.

He said users have switched over, or even back, to crack and cocaine
because the boom means many can afford more expensive drugs. An
aggressive public-education campaign was also helpful in getting the
message out that crystal meth is extremely dangerous, he added.

"You only have to look at someone who is using it to know it's a weird
drug."

Crystal meth, which is more likely to cause psychosis than any other
street drug, is made by mixing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine with
about a dozen other substances, including iodine, camp fuel and acetone.

Mary Anne Jablonski, an Alberta Tory MLA who sat on a provincial
crystal-meth task force committee, is pleased the public and lawmakers
recognized early on that the drug "could be a horrible, horrible
plague" because of the severe physical and psychological damage it
inflicts on users.

Alberta, like Saskatchewan and Manitoba, were all quick to restrict
pharmacy sales of cold remedies that contain pseudoephedrine and ephedrine.

"[Crystal meth] is still brutal," Ms. Jablonski said. "But it's not as
big as we thought it would become."

She praises Alberta communities such as Drayton Valley for confronting
the drug head-on by supporting crystal-meth education and awareness
programs and parent support groups.

Drayton Valley Mayor Diana McQueen said her town had no other choice
because crystal meth was devastating families and leading to an
increase in crimes such as theft.

"At first we got a fair amount of flak from other communities. They
were wondering why we would admit to this," she said. "But we just
knew we had a problem. If we hid it, people would know and it would
just get worse."

Staff Sergeant Ian Sanderson, a drug-awareness co-ordinator with the
RCMP in Alberta, said he's "cautiously optimistic" crystal meth is no
longer a growing menace.

He said Alberta never witnessed an explosion of small homegrown meth
labs unlike many U.S. states such as California, which is a key
indicator to him the drug's popularity is waning.

While meth-related seizures and trafficking arrests have declined
provincewide, Staff Sgt. Sanderson said it's too early to declare victory.

"It may just be that we've driven it so far underground through public
awareness and our enforcement activities that we aren't onto it yet,"
he explained.

In Manitoba, the height of the crystal-meth craze was at the end of
2004, but its use has declined since then and held steady over the
last two years, according to Sergeant Mike Ramsay, head of the RCMP's
synthetic-drug operations in Winnipeg. It's still seen on the streets
of Winnipeg, and in the towns of Morden, Winkler and Altona in
southern Manitoba, although not in the quantities police once expected.

From 2005 to 2006, Manitoba RCMP seizures of crystal meth dropped 30
per cent, from 178 to 126, while the number of ecstasy seizures
increased nearly 300 per cent.

Sgt. Ramsay says the media's efforts to educate the public about the
dangers of crystal meth have made young people reluctant to try it.

At the moment, cocaine is much more prevalent around the province, and
a glut of supply has kept prices low, Sgt. Ramsay said. "There seems
to be plenty of it around, and that's keeping it competitive among the
dealers out there."

Ian Rabb is a recovering cocaine and crystal-meth addict who has been
sober for six years. The Winnipeg resident knows many other addicts
from 12-step programs in the city, and says crystal meth has never
supplanted cocaine as the main drug of choice on the streets.

"Winnipeg is a very coke- and crack-driven community, and I don't know
why that is. I've always wondered. A lot of people try meth and they
say, 'I don't like it; it's not the high I wanted,' " Mr. Rabb said.
"It didn't explode here the way it did in North Dakota.

"A lot of people are still very scared of meth in Manitoba,
particularly high-school students who might be prone to try it."

Mr. Rabb said it's important to remember that those who fall victim to
crystal meth are typically driven to it by other problems in their
lives. It's a mistake to think the drug is to blame, he said.

"People that try drugs are not having a good time in life - they're
looking for an outlet, and they've usually tried other drugs before
they try meth."

By the numbers

Clandestine methamphetamine laboratories raided in Canada by
year.

1998: 4

1999: 14

2000: 24

2001: 13

2002: 25

2003: 37

2004: 40

2005: 29

SOURCE: RCMP