CRYSTAL METH USER TELLS STUDENTS OF MEETING THE DEVIL AND COMING HOME

SEDLEY -- She sat by herself in a metal chair against the wall, beside
another chair that was empty but moments earlier had held the ample frame
of Dallas Stars scout Jim Pedersen. Pedersen, a farmer from Milestone,
stages drug awareness seminars wherever he is invited, mostly talking to
junior hockey players. But now he is being invited into schools, and on
Monday of this week he faced students from Sedley school. Much of what he
talked about in trying to convince these kids to never bow to peer
pressure, or any kind of pressure, to never get involved with drugs or
alcohol, was the growing dilemma that is crystal meth. It is among the
deadliest of drugs ever to get a foothold in this province.

When he had finished, Jim Pedersen brought to the front of the gymnasium
the girl who had been sitting quietly at the side. Her name is Kelly
Merriman. She lives and works in Saskatoon. She is 34 now. Kelly has a
lived a life that you wouldn't wish on anyone. It has been a trip to hell
and back, fuelled by booze and drugs ranging all the way from marijuana to
crystal meth. She has been off of them for 14 months, as of Monday. Every
day drug-free is a special one. Crystal meth is not a drug isolated to the
big cities. In fact, its reach has no limit. It slithers through the
province, finding victims everywhere. It can be found in small towns like
Sedley and on farms. Native leaders hold concerns it could become the
biggest problem among young people on reserves. It is, in fact, everywhere.

And Kelly Merriman has been everywhere with it. She courageously told her
story to the kids in Sedley on Monday, often stopping as her voice broke
and tears came to her eyes. She is one of the lucky ones. She got off the
stuff, and lived to tell about it.

Her mind is not scrambled, as many are. Her body is not broken, as many are.

"I started drinking when I was 15 years old," she said. "I drank a lot,
too. I wanted to be accepted. I wanted to be popular. One time when we were
drinking, I had a joint. These boys took me to this house, took me upstairs
and raped me. I ended up in the hospital. The doctor said I was lucky I
didn't die from alcohol poisoning. They had to pump my stomach."

That brush with death didn't phase her a bit. Youth coupled with drugs
produces a sense of invincibility. Kelly graduated from high school "with
pretty average marks" and continued on her drug and booze odyssey. Her
friends all were involved in drugs. So were the boys she went with. It was
a world that grew smaller and smaller, one bound together only by the tight
knot of drugs and booze. Kelly spoke Monday of how she progressed from drug
to drug -- marijuana, magic mushrooms, cocaine, LSD and ecstacy. But the
one she loved the most was crystal meth.

"It was all for that excitement," she said. "It was all for, 'Yeah, let's
have a good time.' I was progressing from drug to drug. I wanted to be
liked, I wanted to be popular. I was doing ecstacy for a while and by this
time in my life I was dating a drug dealer."

The dealer came home one day with a small Ziploc bag with a picture of the
devil on it. The bag contained crystal meth. "I started on crystal meth,"
Kelly said. "I was losing weight (45 pounds in two years), I was hyper,
didn't sleep -- without sleep for four days once." Her diet at the height
of her addiction to meth consisted of chocolate milk and crystal meth. "I
finally kicked my boyfriend out," she said. But the impact the drug was
having on her lingered. Paranoia is part of the crystal meth package.
"Everywhere I went I thought people were watching me, were out to get me.
None of that was true. It was the drug." Even now, 14 months after getting
off the drug, she still has those occasional moments of paranoia.

Eventually, she found herself at a crossroads, literally at a point of no
return. Stay on the drug, her life would be over. "I had a friend who
committed suicide. I wanted to kill myself. I got off. I'm fortunate that I
can walk, that I can eat. And I'm not wearing a diaper." Kelly Merriman
smiled and paused for a moment. "I know I am not a bad person," she said,
as she looked out over the audience of students and parents and
grandparents in the Sedley school gymnasium. "I just made a lot of bad
choices."

She went back to her chair on the side of the gym and sat down next to Jim
Pedersen. He put his arm around her. She has made a good choice. Others
left their chairs and came over and gave her hugs and words of
encouragement. Every day is a battle. Kelly Merriman is winning the one she
has waged against crystal meth. Others are not so lucky. They live in rehab
centres, mindless some of them, scarred some of them, never to return to
the world they gave up for a drug called crystal meth.

Kelly Merriman is one of the lucky ones. There have not been a lot of
success stories. But she is one of them.