MY METH HELL

Ex-Addict Tells of Addiction Misery, Backs Task Force

Jessica Claridge has been off crystal meth for two years, and knows
she's lucky to be alive.

As an addict, her skin used to smell like the solvents meth is made
of. She hallucinated that SWAT teams were outside her door waiting to
barge in and shoot her dead.

"It's easy and cheap to make, it's potent and you can pretty much get
it anywhere," the Sherwood Park teen said yesterday at the release of
the report from the Premier's Task Force on Crystal Meth.

"When meth first hit, no one knew what it was, not even the cops. By
the time we figured it out, kids were already hooked."

Claridge said it was support from family and friends that kept her
alive and allowed her to kick the dirty drug, a concoction of
chemicals from sources like drain cleaner, muriatic acid and paint
thinner. It gives a fast, euphoric high, but causes brain damage,
violence and death.

"We need change in the way police and governments are allowed to deal
with meth," she said.

She supports recommendations for specialized police forces that focus
solely on busting labs, and criminal code reforms that would crack
down on dealers and users.

"I had to hurt a lot of people to learn that. It wasn't until I saw my
dad bawling his eyes out with nowhere to turn that I was able to look
in a mirror and realize I was killing myself."

Every meth addict comes to that crossroad, she said.

"You realize that you're either going to get clean, or you're going to
die. Anyone who says they're in control of it is lying."

Chris, 44, is a St. Albert mom with a daughter much like Claridge. Her
kid has been clean for almost a year, after being hooked on meth for
two. She didn't want their names used.

"Support groups like Parents Empowering Parents are the most important
thing to help us get through this with our kids," said Chris, who is
PEP vice-chairman.

"Our numbers haven't gone up in recent years, but meth use had. To me
that means there's a lot of parents out there in denial."

She admitted when she first caught on to her daughter's addiction, she
didn't know what meth was.

"But I learned. The hard way - two years of hell," she
said.

Her daughter became aggressive, lost huge amounts of weight and was
bothered by the light.

"All that was left was the meth. My child was an empty
shell."

Chris fully supports local initiatives to help bring families,
addictions counsellors, and support groups together to combat meth
addiction. Most importantly, she said, is that employers also
understand the drug.

She likes a task force recommendation urging increased funding for
municipal prevention programming, but says the current focus on
support for native communities should be expanded to include all cultures.

"Meth knows no boundaries," she said. "It doesn't matter what colour
your skin is."

Advocates of the specific aboriginal recommendations say they were
included in the report because marginalized communities, including
natives and the homeless, are at greater risk of meth abuse.