CRYSTAL METH IS A MENACE

Mark describes himself as a "small-town farm boy who got involved with the
wrong crowd" when he came to live in Vancouver. The first time he tried
crystal meth he was hooked. He stayed high for a year.

There followed three voluntary admissions to hospital and one attempted
suicide.

Mark is one of many readers who contacted The Province in response to our
series on the menace of crystal meth.

We knew we had a problem out there. But it appears to be even greater than
we had believed possible.

"It's like no other drug we've ever seen," says Lorinda Strang, admissions
director at the Orchard Recovery Centre. "Before you can blink an eye,
you're addicted."

This drug drags its victims down into a private hell. In clinical terms,
they turn psychotic.

What's to be done?

Meth addicts often are quite incapable of making rational decisions.

But, at the moment, parents are unable to force children to get treatment,
unless they present a clear danger to themselves or others.

This means that a meth addict in a state of psychosis can be tasered and
handcuffed by police, delivered to hospital and, within an hour, be back on
the street.

In Alberta, a change to the law means parents will be able to get minors
admitted for treatment with or without their permission.

The government in B.C. should be looking to do the same.

Either we act now, or we risk watching a generation of our youth suffer the
nightmare of permanent brain damage.