CRYSTAL METH NEXT IN WAVE OF DRUGS THAT PLAGUE YOUTH

For some teens and young adults, vices such as drinking, puffing on
cigarettes and smoking dope isn't enough.

For many young people in Saskatchewan, crystal meth has become the fad
drug of choice to top off their roster of chemical coping strategies.

According to the 2004 Canadian Addiction Survey, four per cent of
Saskatchewan residents aged 15 or older have tried speed or an
equivalent drug, including meth, in their lifetime. In comparison, 41
per cent of the same group report they have tried marijuana at least
once, and 78.2 per cent say they currently drink alcohol.

But another study, conducted by the Youth Addictions Project in
Saskatoon, showed about 19 per cent of 12- to 24-year-olds in the city
have specifically tried crystal meth.

"This is actually the fourth wave of something we've seen like crystal
meth," said Michelle Robson, manager of clinical services with
Community Addictions Services in Saskatoon. "There was speed in the
'70s -- crank they called it at that time. In the '80s it was crack
cocaine, in the '90s it was the club drugs, ecstasy and GHB and all of
that. Now we're seeing this wave. And all those drugs in all of those
decades have been kind of the fourth used drug."

Although police say crystal meth is being used by people of all walks
of life in Saskatchewan, addictions counsellors say they're seeing
mostly young, white, middle- and upper-class youths and adults walking
through their doors. They look thin, pale and waxy, with lesions on
their skin and dark circles under their eyes from abusing a drug that
gives them a boost of seemingly endless energy and keeps them awake
for days.

Saskatoon addictions counsellors began to see crystal meth users about
three to four years ago, Robson said. At first, the users were usually
young aboriginal males.

"It really started to kind of hit the community's radar about a year
ago and I think it morphed into different areas of our community and
that's when we started to see young adults about the 17-24 age group.
It's pretty consistent within that age group since then, and white
middle-class kids, primarily young people."

In La Ronge, Wayne Kuffner, a clinical supervisor for addictions in
the Mamawetan Churchill River Regional Health Authority, says the few
meth users they have seen are young -- between 14 and 17 years of age.

In Regina, youth addictions counsellor Don Fitzsimmons first saw
patients using crystal meth about a year ago. Typically, kids who were
already dabbling in other drugs were trying meth on for size, he said.
In some cases, teens and young adults were buying a drug they thought
was ecstasy and turned out to be crystal meth.

"The presentation of their symptoms was all wrong, then we knew
something was going on," Fitzsimmons said.

Six months ago, a rash of methamphetamine cases showed up in teens in
the northwestern part of Regina, centred around a high school in a
middle-class neighbourhood.

Kids and young adults can get meth at school, from friends, from
houses where it's sold by adults, or on the street, the counsellors
say.

What surprises Fitzsimmons is what he hears from more hardened young
people -- those in custody or on Regina's streets, whom he calls the
"auto theft bunch." They're not that interested in dabbling in the
drug, he said, perhaps because meth is so addictive and can transform
lives so quickly.

"They're staying right away from this," he said. "I just think that
they don't like being that far out of control."

People who start smoking crystal meth -- and later may snort or inject
it -- often can't stop.

"It's so outstandingly fun," Fitzsimmons said with a chuckle. "It's
insanely pleasant. This drug is particularly seductive because it's
just incredible. The pursuit of redoing that original experience is
how the addiction gets ingrained."

The high hits faster than cocaine and can last 10 times as
long.

"The kids just love it," Fitzsimmons said. "I had one boy who was in
custody .. and he said, 'Don, if there's was a grain of this drug
somewhere in this room, I would tear you apart and anybody else just
to get to it.' "

Since his daughter Kelly's crystal meth addiction became public in
December, Saskatoon-Northwest MLA Ted Merriman has become a magnet for
parents looking for an ear or advice on what to do about their own
child's methamphetamine use.

"Pretty much all the cases are the same," said Merriman. "Change the
name of the kid, change the age or the sex, but the pattern is
identical from start to finish."

He also says it's not clean kids who are plunging into meth, but pot
smokers and drinkers who are looking to up the ante.

"A lot of them have had issues with self-esteem, maybe been bullied,
maybe been sexually abused," said Merriman, a Saskatchewan Party MLA.
"There's usually a trigger in there that started them. The difference
with crystal meth is, once they're on that, there's a
deterioration."

The downward spiral usually entails rapid, unexplainable weight loss,
paranoia and aggression toward family members.

When middle-class kids get hooked on meth, parents with well-padded
bank accounts sometimes inadvertently allow the habit to continue,
Merriman said.

"Do you want them living on the street? No, so you put them in an
apartment," he said. "They don't have food so you buy them food. All
of that's enabling. They're not spending their money on food, they're
spending yours, and they're spending yours on drugs."

One man who called Merriman for help said his child has squeezed him
for $200,000 during the last decade.

The stereotype that drugs only run rampant in low-income communities
is a fallacy, Merriman said.

"I think it's just a symptom of you don't think it's going to happen
to you. Our kids have had more opportunities, (and are) spoiled maybe
in turn," he said. "And they are the ones with the disposable income."

The drug's price -- about $10 a point, or 10th of a gram, in urban
centres, and up to $30 a point in rural areas -- makes it accessible
to young people, said Robson, the Saskatoon addictions counsellor.

The quick high that sets in about 10 minutes after users bring the
rolling papers to their lips is what appeals to young people, she said.

"We live in an instant world, a fast-food world, an instant fix world.
So they're going to gravitate towards that," she said.

"More complex is that it's hitting a component of our community that
usually doesn't have a lot of problems with drugs or people don't
recognize that they have problems with drugs," Robson said.

There's also two kinds of users, she said -- the binge users who stay
up for days until they crash, and the habitual users who wean
themselves off meth nightly so they can sleep.

Users also often stick together, she said.

"They have their own language and they have their own culture around
this drug," Robson said.

Meth addicts may develop lesions on their skin as the drug seeps out,
she said, and while hallucinating, they feel as if bugs are crawling
under their skin. Their behaviour becomes obsessive and they focus on
repetitive tasks, such as picking at the lesions on their skin.

To an addict, the side-effects are irrelevant compared to the euphoria
they get from the drug, she said.

In Saskatoon, Robson is already starting to see meth use slow down
among addicts because of the negative effect it has on users.

"I think it's because of all the information and light shone on it and
the focus that it's had in the last year," she said. "It's starting to
get a bad rep on the street and so that speaks highly as well."