METH KEEPS PULLING HER BACK INTO ABYSS

Drug Causes Her To Pick At Arms And Face Until They Bleed

It has been nearly a week since Princess last "chapped a puddle."

As the weekend parties creep closer again, the 16-year-old vows to stay
away from the drug that has nearly destroyed her, the monster that has
given her nosebleeds, made her lungs ache, coated her eyes with yellow
slime, eaten away her memory, dropped her weight by 20 pounds, caused her
to pick at her face and arms until they bleed and pushed her into the
shower countless times to scrub away the biting, burning chemical smell.

She hates it.

But she wants it.

Jib, ice, crank, glass -- crystal methamphetamine -- it's a drug Princess
didn't know anything about when she first bought it last summer in Edmonton
and took it home to Tofield.

She melted the tiny white crystals into a puddle on a piece of curved glass
from a broken light bulb, then smoked up its toxic vapours using a hollowed
pen tube.

It was an adrenaline rush. She didn't sleep or eat for days.

"I probably will end up doing it again, but I don't want to," says the
teen, fiddling with a clunky set of keys and twisting several colourful
necklaces back and forth. She can't sit still.

Princess isn't her real name. She doesn't want her name published. She was
a good kid from a normal home, she says, and she wants her life back.

She tried quitting before, and she was clean for about five weeks, but the
craving was bad and the crystal meth so easy to get.

She no longer needs to make the 70-kilometre drive north to Edmonton to get
the drug. In the tiny town of 1,800, meth is just a phone call away.

But so is Kerry Laberge.

"I don't care what time it is. Give me a call, so I can talk you out of
it," Laberge tells the girl before she leaves his office.

The principal of Pace Outreach high school in Camrose has become a crusader
for kids hooked on meth, good kids and bad kids, middle-class teens and
dropouts, youths who want to stay awake to study, those who just want to
party, girls who want a quick diet fix and boys who want an edge on the
sports field.

With sunglasses perched on his head, Laberge is the cool adult, a friend
who keeps secrets while offering help. He's also wearing a shirt and tie,
proof of the importance of his new role; he has been seconded from Pace to
head a community task force struck up last fall to curb the growing crystal
meth crisis.

Attached to his waistband is a silver cellphone, connected to the task
force's emergency hotline number for youth to dial, day or night.

"I've sat holding hands with youth who've been hooked up to IVs," says
Laberge. "I've gone to St. Mary's Hospital here. Ward 3 is the psychiatric
ward. I've sat with youth there, too."

He recently visited one girl in hospital, a 17-year-old math honours
student, and asked her to add 13 and 16. She hesitated before answering 39.

Laberge has counselled more than 200 teens on their meth addiction
throughout the Battle River school division, stretching from Camrose to
Tofield to Hay Lakes.

Laberge and other task force members have also made presentations about the
dangers of the drug to another 4,500 students in the area.

The plan: get to them before they get to meth. Tell them it's made from
toxic chemicals, everything from camping fuel to brake fluid, paint thinner
and iodine; that it causes brain damage, kidney problems, paranoia and
violent behaviour; how 42 per cent of users get addicted after one shot,
and 96 per cent are hooked after a second try.

The big draw is that it's cheap, about $8 for a "grain," or a tenth of a
gram -- less than the price of a movie.

Last year, RCMP charged 164 people with trafficking meth in Alberta, 12
times the number five years ago.

Meth's rapid growth has sent other rural communities scurrying to draw up
their own battle plans. Like Evansburg, where a drug awareness committee
was recently formed. And Drayton Valley, where town officials have hired
two new RCMP members to help with the spike in drug use and the crime that
goes along with it: break-and-enters, car thefts, domestic violence.

Meth has also spread into Bonnyville, Barrhead, Fort McMurray, Fort
Saskatchewan, St. Albert, Valleyview and Wetaskiwin.

And it has moved beyond teen circles. In Edson, AADAC counsellors are
seeing more workers in the oil, gas and logging industries walk through
their doors. For some, the drug helped them work for days -- weeks even --
without sleep. But it eventually took over their lives, they lost their
jobs and it ruined family relationships, says supervisor Edith
Zuidhof-Knoopstay.

"Life unravels very quickly when you're using speed," she says. "Seeing
someone go from having a normal life to having very little left sometimes
takes as little as three to six months."

Hinton currently tops AADAC's list of communities struggling with meth.
About 30 per cent of clients there are meth addicts.

AADAC counsellor Mark Schmidt says living in a small town like Hinton makes
it more difficult for people to quit.

"If you're trying to stay clean, you have people coming over to see if you
have any stuff. You walk by the house where you used to get it. The allure
is always there in your face."

In Edmonton, slightly more than 20 per cent of AADAC clients struggle with
meth addiction, about triple the number in Calgary.

Meth has hit northern Alberta the hardest, in part, because more of it is
produced here, says Sgt. Ian Sanderson, head of the RCMP's drug-awareness
service based out of Edmonton.

In November, RCMP and Edmonton city police uncovered a super meth lab
operating in a west-end warehouse, capable of cooking $1 million worth of
meth every 24 hours.

Labs have also been discovered in Spruce Grove and Gibbons. Other rural
RCMP detachments suspect labs are operating in their communities. They just
haven't found them yet.

Meth is so easy to make, it can be produced anywhere. Some people cook
small amounts at home on the stove. Others mix the chemicals together in
jars or plastic slush cups and transport them in coolers, backpacks or car
trunks. They get recipes off the Internet and buy chemical ingredients in
hardware stores and pharmacies.

It's dangerous stuff, says Sanderson. One out of every six "home cook" labs
is discovered by the fire department after an explosion.

Even if meth cooks aren't using the drugs they produce, the chemical fumes
can make them sick, as well as anyone nearby.

That's why the RCMP and Alberta Justice are preparing to follow the lead of
some American jurisdictions and charge people with child abuse if young
children are found in meth lab homes.

And that's why Capital Health brought in a new protocol last year requiring
all home owners and landlords to thoroughly clean houses and apartments
where police have busted meth labs, so new buyers or renters won't be harmed.

CRYSTAL METH

- - What is it? An extremely addictive drug that stimulates the body's
central nervous system.

- - What does it look like? Clear, shiny crystals.

- - How is it made? It's a combination of toxic substances, such as camping
fuel, brake fluid and rock salt. A key ingredient is ephedrine, an element
in cold medications.

- - How is it taken? It's normally smoked, but it can also be snorted,
injected, ingested or "hooped" (inserted in the anus).

- - Associated paraphernalia: broken glass from light bulbs, straws or
hollowed pen tubes, pencil torches. Items are often stored and carried in
eyeglass cases.

- - What does it do? Users go without food or sleep for days before they
"sketch out" (get nervous and aggressive), then crash.

- - Dangers: brain, kidney, heart, lung and liver damage; depression,
paranoia, violence.