CYSTAL METH WAY OF LOSING WEIGHT

New Teen Trend Worries Experts

OTTAWA - Drug advocacy groups and police in Western Canada are
noticing a disturbing new trend of teenage girls who use the drug
crystal meth to lose weight -- up to 18 kilograms a month.

"We've got a recipe for disaster," says addiction counsellor Bob
Hughes. "It's huge -- this combination of body image issues and the
drug's weight loss appeal."

Crystal meth, the street version of the drug methamphetamine, is an
addictive stimulant that causes elation and alertness in addition to
curbing appetite.

Meth users can smoke, snort, inject or swallow the drug. They're
usually ingesting a crude combination of cold medicine, brake cleaner,
fertilizer, drain cleaner and iodine along with a myriad of other chemicals.

"Meth is an appetite suppressant," says Vancouver RCMP Corp. Scott
Rintoul. "It's a drug that will give you stimulation for 12 hours,
with no need to eat and no need to sleep."

It's also cheap -- between $5 to $10 per hit -- and has consequently
been labelled "poor man's cocaine."

But this time, teenage girls are using it.

"Young women know and find out quickly that there are drugs that do
reduce your appetite and cause you to lose weight," says Rintoul. "And
meth is so affordable."

Hughes, who helps run a crystal meth treatment program called Meth
Kickers, in Kamloops, B.C., says he's seeing an increased number of
teenage girls aged 12 to 18 come through his doors.

"You see these women who are five feet four inches and 95 pounds and
they have such a distorted body image," he said.

According to the World Health Organization, methamphetamine is the
most widely used illicit drug in the world after cannabis.

Methamphetamine has been around for decades. It was marketed in North
America in the 1920s as a weight-loss drug.

"It was touted for its dietary benefits," says Hughes. "It's amazing
that in the first place this drug was used was for weight loss."

Meth has lethal side-effects. Its use can cause insomnia,
hallucinations, paranoia and anxiety as well as heart problems,
convulsion, brain damage and death.

Hughes has seven young people in his Meth Kickers treatment program
right now. All are female and two have eating disorders.

Across the country, there are unclear statistics of how many girls use
crystal meth to lose weight. But one thing that both police and drug
advocacy groups agree on is that the drug is spreading from west to
east.

"We can see the tornado coming," says Zenon Lisakowski, a prevention
and education consultant with the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba.
"But what is interesting is that we have the ability to put
preventative measures in place."