CRYSTAL METH: JUST A NEW NAME FOR AN OLD SCOURGE

Crystal meth is an old drug with a new name and a new delivery system, but
the devastation remains the same.

"I've seen it come. I've seen it go," said Dr. Ray Baker, an addiction
specialist and an assistant clinical professor at the University of British
Columbia medical school.

Baker said society's last major go-round with methamphetamine was in the
1960s. Only back then it was called "speed" and users injected it.

"Remember the speed freaks? It was still methamphetamine."

But now it goes by names like "jib" and "crank" and users are smoking it.
Many people are just unwilling to cross the psychic barrier and begin
injection drug use, said Baker. And that removal of the hypodermic needle
may explain its sudden popularity.

In Victoria, the percentage of young people showing up at the Vancouver
Island Youth Detox Centre to report crystal meth as their drug of choice
has grown from 11 per cent in 2000-01 to 61 per cent in 2003-04. A
grassroots community group called the Crystal Meth Victoria Society was
launched this week to try to come to grips with the problem.

Baker said crystal meth, like all amphetamines, even diet pills, acts as
psycho-stimulant affecting the pleasure cells in the brain. It can also
permanently damage brain cells, an effect Baker called "spooky." And
long-term use can lead to psychoses that strongly resemble paranoid
schizophrenia.

Victoria police Const. Conor King, of the department's strike force,
believes crystal meth's big attraction is its cheap price, compared to
drugs like cocaine. There is also its long-lasting effect, a high that
lasts for days of wide-awake energy, versus 20 minutes for cocaine.

Crystal meth is easy to manufacture. Drug and hardware stores carry all the
ingredients and instructions can be found on the Internet.

King believes it's only a matter of time before Victoria police bust a meth
lab.

For every pound of crystal meth about seven pounds of toxic material
results. Police officers in other jurisdictions, Vancouver for example,
suit up with protective clothing and breathing apparatus when they bust a
meth lab.

"It basically turns a house into a toxic dumpsite," said King.

Police officers say users of crystal meth are almost instantly
recognizable. They call it "the meth look."

It's characterized most noticeably by thin physique and the presence of
sores or ruptures on the skin.

According to Baker, the addictions doctor, a misconception has grown up
about these sores. This misconception holds they are the result of toxins
in the drug working their way out through the pores of the skin.

What the sores really are is the result of an immune system battered by
periods lasting several days where the user doesn't sleep or eat.

"Put someone in a starvation camp and keep them awake and they would look
very similar," said Baker.

In terms of its addictive capacity, crystal meth is probably more addictive
than alcohol or marijuana, less than crack cocaine or nicotine. That
capacity for addiction, however, is very dependent on the individual.