THE DANGERS OF CRYSTAL METH

EXETER -- "It's the most dangerous drug I've seen at the street level."

That's how Huron OPP Det. Const. Mike McCabe described
methamphetamine at a Community Forum meeting at South Huron District
High School last week.

Crystal meth, part of the methamphetamine family of drugs, was the
main focus of the meeting, with McCabe and Shona Gray of Huron
Addiction Services filling in parents, teachers and youth on the
effects crystal meth can have on a person's life and the risks involved.

Highly addictive

Methamphetamines are a powerful stimulant, highly addictive, that
stimulate the central nervous system and can cause paranoia and
violent behaviour, resulting in severe brain damage. While McCabe
said OPP aren't seeing a lot of meth in the Exeter area, it has hit
the Wingham and Brussels areas and Perth County has become notorious
for its production of the drug -- McCabe said about 80 per cent of
the meth labs in Ontario are found in Perth County.

McCabe said 60 per cent of crystal meth users smoke it, 20 per cent
inject it and the remaining 20 per cent snort it, although McCabe
said it's a difficult drug to snort because it is rough and hard.
Meth can look like shards of glass, is usually off-white to yellow in
colour and has a tacky or sticky feel to it. McCabe said one of his
observations has been that those who inject the drug tend to be
female. Gray added sharing needles is another risk to crystal meth
use, because HIV can be spread through dirty needles. With pipes,
they can burn the inside of the user's lips and transmit hepatitis.

Comparing meth to cocaine, McCabe said users get "a lot more bang for
their buck" with meth. A gram bag of crystal meth costs $80 to $100,
but the initial rush lasts five to 30 minutes, with a high of between
four and 12 hours, much longer than cocaine, which has a high of 20
to 30 minutes.

Meth was developed by German scientists in the late 1800s and was
given to German troops by Adolf Hitler in the Second World War to
keep them awake. Allied soldiers also used it, McCabe said. The drug
was linked to bike gangs in the U.S. in the 1940s and 1950s, before
going into a lull for a long time, finally making a comeback in the
1980s, starting in California and sweeping across the United States
and into Canada.

Effects on health

Meth users can suffer from the following effects: sweating, weight
loss, increased heart rate, shortness of breath, insomnia, rotting of
teeth, itchy and dry skin, dilation of pupils, damage to internal
organs such as the heart, liver and brain, constant fidgeting,
hallucinations, delusions, anxiety, panic attacks, paranoia,
depression, aggression and suicidal tendencies. After being awake on
a high for five to six days, users will routinely crash for 24 hours.

McCabe showed shocking before and after pictures of meth users and
talked of "meth mouth," the extreme rotting of the teeth and gums of
meth users, caused by dryness of the mouth.

He compared the addictiveness of the drug to that of heroin. Meth is
usually 80-90 per cent pure, one reason for its highly addictive nature.

Dangerous chemicals

McCabe described the Internet as "a terrible tool" because of the
thousands of meth recipes available online. Also, most of the
supplies can be bought at grocery stores and pharmacies. Crystal meth
can contain the following chemicals: farm fertilizer, lye, kerosene,
gas, cold medicine, engine starter, brake cleaner, sulfuric acid,
campfire fuel and lithium. The combination makes meth labs dangerous
and can explode.

One of the challenges the police have is that McCabe said crystal
meth is a very difficult drug to prosecute because it can be made so
quickly (in about six hours). By the time officers get a search
warrant for a property, the suspects have usually left with the crystal meth.

"We're still learning," McCabe said, adding the drug can be produced
anywhere, from a house, a shed, a car or in the bush. The labs are
not sophisticated and are hard to find in rural areas. Another
challenge in the schools is that for legal reasons, police can no
longer do random locker searches -- a specific reason is needed to
search a group of lockers, SHDHS vice-principal Petra Goetz said.

McCabe said longtime users of crystal meth say using the drug no
longer gives them a high, but producing it does, because of all the
fumes they breathe in.

Crime

Meth also leads to crime such as break-ins, theft and social problems
within families.

"People will do anything to get it," McCabe said, describing meth
users as different than other drug users because of their paranoia.

Gray said the South Huron area isn't seeing the prevalence of crystal
meth use that Perth County is. She said many young people are afraid
of the drug because they know the chemicals that are in it. She said
one of the dangers of focusing so much attention on crystal meth is
that other drugs such as coke, crack and alcohol can be forgotten. Of
the drug users she sees, crystal meth is the third or fourth drug of
choice for them, behind alcohol, marijuana and cocaine.

"There is a lot of cocaine in this county," she said.

Huron Addiction Services is run through the Huron County Health Unit
and offers free services such as one-to-one counselling, information,
support and referral to other treatment services. In addition to
offering services regarding drug and alcohol abuse, Huron Addiction
Services also provides gambling addiction services.