RESIDENTS FIGHT LURE OF CRYSTAL METH

Family Centre Produces Booklet on Deadly Drug

A North End neighbourhood is doing its best to circle the wagons and
keep out the deadly scourge of crystal methamphetamine. But the pull
of the cheap, intense high is so strong that once it has taken
someone, it's almost impossible to get them back, said Dilly Knol of
the Andrews Street Family Centre.

The heightened sense of ecstasy that meth produces means the joy of
sex or chocolate will never be the same again, she said.

"You can't be happy again once you're used to the other," Knol said.
She's seen parents who used to visit the family centre try the drug
once and get hooked. Within a month, they're a wreck with addled
minds, dirty clothes, bad skin and teeth and unattended children, she said.

"It's not because they don't love their kids," she said of those who
become addicted to crystal meth. "It controls you."

Gangs trying to create new addicts have a death grip on the area, but
residents say they're not letting go without putting up a healthy
fight. "If people could come together, we could make a big
difference," resident Nancy Cowley said. She contributed to a booklet
the Andrews Street Family Centre released Wednesday for National
Addictions Awareness Week. Sharing is the community's response to addiction.

Cowley said it's easy to get caught up in the overwhelming problems
the area faces -- crime, poverty, addiction -- and lose hope.

"Healthy living -- taking care of inner self -- having positive
thinking instead of negative thinking" is Cowley's slogan.

"Sometimes you gotta step aside and look at the problem and what is
causing it," she said.

People with no hope for the future are easy targets for crystal meth
dealers, Knol said.

"It makes you believe you're a super person," she said.

And the fact that the drug is cheap -- half the price of crack
cocaine -- makes it more accessible.

A "point" or hit of crystal meth costs just $10 -- about half of the
cost of a rock of crack cocaine, said Winnipeg police spokesman Sgt.
Kelly Dennison. "The fact is meth is cheaper, the high is more
intense and it lasts longer," he said.

"It's the newest player on the streets and it's the worst."

Knol said the drug is immediately addictive and ruins people quickly.

"One of the things I'm afraid of is it affects your brain," she said.
Other drugs affect the kidneys and other organs, but meth scrambles a
user's mind, she said.

"If people don't wake up and start putting some resources into it,
the mental-health issues in the next generation are going to
explode," Knol said. Provincial funding targeting addicted youth isn't enough.

"It's not just youth -- it's families, parents giving up," she said.

And the problem is growing, police say.

"Meth is something we're seeing more of on the street," Dennison said.

"Crystal meth is the worst drug going."