CRYSTAL-METH USE 'HAS SNOWBALLED' AMONG STREET KIDS

Methamphetamine use is alarmingly prevalent among Vancouver's street youth,
a group of city heath-care providers and addictions workers heard yesterday
at the Mayor's Four Pillar Coalition seminar.

Seventy per cent of street youths reported using methamphetamines, or
crystal meth, according to a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority survey,
while almost 50 per cent reported using the dirt-cheap, highly-addictive
drug in the past week.

"This is sort of the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot more questions
about the long-term effects," said Jennifer Vornbrock, manager of youth
addiction services for the authority.

"Crystal meth has just snowballed. It's very attractive as a street drug

. . . homeless youth are into it, but it's also a drug which is used in a
social setting, in the workplace, and by students in university, high
school and college," said Cpl. Scott Rintoul of the RCMP Drug Awareness
Program.

"The percentage of meth-related seizures has gone up dramatically in every
[Lower Mainland] community." He said a $10 hit can last 12 hours.

Meth's devastating effects -- chronic insomnia, paranoia, long-term
psychosis and stroke -- are well-known, but self-destructive youth are
drawn to it for precisely this reason, said youth counsellor Diederik Wolsak.

"In the case of crystal meth, it generally is an extreme form of
self-hatred, because most kids now know about the stuff and how horrible it
is," said Wolsak, of Vancouver-based Choose Again Society, which treats
addiction by addressing youth's core beliefs about their self-worth.

Teenage meth addiction is devastating to families as well. A parent of one
of Wolsak's former patients said her 14-year-old daughter was a talented
musician before marijuana use led her into a crystal-meth addiction. Her
daughter dropped out of school, lived on the street and stole to support
her habit.

"Our daughter wasn't willing to listen to anything her parents had to say.
She had all the information -- it's not as if we didn't talk about drugs. I
can say to her now, 'What could we have done differently?' " and she'll
say, 'Absolutely nothing, I had to do it,' " said the south Surrey mother,
who requested anonymity.

Her daughter, now 19, has been clean for a year and a half and is about to
graduate from high school.

The Methamphetamine Response Committee Vornbrock chairs is undertaking
initiatives to counter meth use among youth, including a website,
high-school theatre project and program to train six youth to work with
young people on the street.

The Surrey School Board is developing a crystal meth education program,
while the Vancouver School Board is studying the problem.