'IT'S INCREDIBLE HE'S ALIVE'

Kamloops: Talented Musician Fights Back From The Grip Of Crystal Meth

When Bob Hughes first met him, Andrew Youds was a gaunt, twitching, sickly
mess of sores.

The 19-year-old had been addicted to crystal methamphetamine for four
years. It had led to problems with his family, even a spell in jail.

Today, Youds is among the first successful graduates of a unique program to
fight meth abuse in a city where the problem is growing year by year.

And Tuesday, Youds will be among the panelists at a community forum on
crystal meth, organized by The Province, at Thompson Rivers University at 7p.m.

"This guy's a miracle. It's incredible he's alive," says Hughes, one of the
founders of the Meth Kickers program run out of the provincially funded
Phoenix Centre.

Kickers is part of the centre's youth-focused Raven Program, which offers
counselling, education for parents and outreach services in Kamloops and
Merritt for people under 25.

In March, one of Youds' many piano compositions was featured in a CBC
television documentary about meth addiction in Kamloops. He used to lock
himself in his room for hours composing furiously, trying to cram as much
work into a short time as possible.

"I still compose music, but now I work in an entirely different way," he
says. "I work on things a little bit at a time, think about things,
contemplate, and in the end I get a much more refined piece of music."

Youds, who now acts as a volunteer consultant for Meth Kickers, made sure
the music featured on the CBC was selected from his "clean" collection.

Meth Kickers' approach is unorthodox, involving, for example, the use of
the unproven nutritional supplement 5-hydroxytryptophan, or 5-HTP.

Hughes says anecdotal evidence suggests the supplement can help meth
addicts' brains replenish serotonin and dopamine levels severely depleted
by meth abuse. Serotonin and dopamine are crucial to feelings of well-being.

Youds says the 5-HTP "levelled" him, helped him get good restful sleep and
a start back on a road to normalcy.

"Reality felt more like reality. It made me feel like my head was more
inside myself," he said.

Youds says his hometown is an easy place to be trapped in the meth web.

Police have yet to uncover a single meth lab in the city, which appears to
confirm that the supply is coming from elsewhere.

Youds says meth was "unheard of" in Kamloops when he first used it. Now, he
says, it's common. Eighty-one people reported amphetamine use to Phoenix
Centre counsellors this year, compared to 41 the year before.

"It's gotten really big here, really fast. Now, I hear about it from my
little brother," Youds says.

He's been clean, with the exception of a couple of very small and very
brief relapses, since November, since the first Meth Kickers group came
together.

Kickers' counsellors react swiftly when addicts call. They'll try for a
face-to-face meeting within 20 minutes, Hughes says. At the least, clients
will get a return call before the next business day.

Clients meet with a counsellor to map out treatment, spend two weeks in the
prep group, then five days in social and medical detox.

After-care takes four weeks of regular meetings with meth and cocaine
urine-screening throughout. The support of parents or caregivers is mandatory.

It's too soon to declare Meth Kickers an unqualified success.

But, with Youds working alongside, Hughes is pressing ahead to make the
program more effective, more relevant to users in his age bracket.

The need is great -- and neither expect it to lessen any time soon.

The first of a series of four community forums organized by The Province in
conjunction with our week-long series on crystal meth takes place in
Kamloops on Tuesday. Other forums will follow in Victoria, Surrey and
Vancouver. On these pages we introduce you to some of those who are
contributing to the forums, to which members of the public are warmly
invited. Dates, times and locations are indicated for each forum.