CRYSTAL METH CAN BE FOUND ANYWHERE

THERE'S METH in the madness of the local drug scene say local police officials.

Det. Sgt. Jamie Ciotka of the Huronia Combined Forces Drug Unit
recently talked about crystal meth during a presentation in Collingwood.

"We're finding the majority of them are in urban centres and they are
in populated areas," he told an audience of 130 people at the Gayety Theatre.

The information session was one of three offered this spring by the
General & Marine Hospital's education endowment fund - money gathered
during the Your Future Fund campaign about five years ago.

The goal of the seminars, said the hospital, is to help residents
living in the Georgian Triangle make healthy lifestyle choices.

"You can't assume it's not in your neighbourhood. A lot of the labs
we find turn into flop houses or smoke houses," said Ciotka.

The popularity of the drug at the street level and the number of home
labs, which are producing the addictive substance are increasing in
rural areas such as the Georgian Triangle and nationally at an alarming rate.

"Seventy per cent of the ecstasy we seized in Canada last year
contained meth," said Ciotka. While it was initially a problem in the
western area of Canada, drug enforcement units are finding it has
traveled to the East Coast and made its way into Ontario.

Although it seems like a small leap from crack cocaine to
methamphetamine (commonly referred to as meth), in reality the latter
drug is a lot worse, he said.

Cocaine is harvested from a plant, whereas meth is completely manmade.

"Cocaine is not grown here and it's smuggled in through the borders,"
said Ciotka. This operation in itself brings with it challenges to
get on the streets.

However, meth is made from ingredients, which can be purchased in
many drug and department stores and cooked in a home lab.

An initial investment of $250 can easily translate into $10,000 worth
of drugs, he said.

Crystal meth is one form of the drug, known as methamphetamine
hydrochloride and comes in clear, chunky crystals, which are inhaled
or smoked. It can easily be produced in small, clandestine labs set
up in a kitchen or bathroom, by mixing a cocktail of approximately 15
substances including pseudoephedrine (a cold remedy), red
phosphorous, iodine, ammonia, paint thinner, ether, Drano and lithium
from batteries.

"What we're finding a lot now is somebody can't go in and say I need
25 packages of Contact C," said Ciotka. Usually the person will visit
about five different stores and purchase 25 packages, which is then
sold to a "cooker."

Crank is the smelly, yellow form of meth and the cheapest form of the
drug, which is snorted. Lith is produced as a pasty substance and
usually smoked.

"When people are dealing with meth in pill format, it's a pretty
organized group," he said.

Speed, glass, windows and ice are other names used for the drug.

"The kids in your high school know what this stuff is," he said.
"You'd be surprised what your children know."

Motorcycle gangs predominately controlled the production and
distribution of it. However, this changed through the creation of the
Internet since the recipes for cooking and instructions for setting
up a home lab are both easily accessible, said Ciotka.

"I went on the Internet and sure enough I found a lot of ways to cook
this stuff," he said.

The initial rush from the effects of the drug lasts up to 30 minutes
and the high lasts anywhere from four to 12 hours.

"A crack cocaine user would have to take four hits a day," to achieve
similar results, he said.

What makes this drug more dangerous is the fact it only takes one use
to become addicted, said Ciotka. It's the type of addiction a person
cannot recover from, and many addicts end up dead.

Many of the reactions are very severe and include rapid weight loss,
dehydration, brittle hair, extreme nervousness and picking of the skin.

"A lot of them think they have bugs on their skin and they just keep
scratching and scratching and scratching," said Ciotkas. "The relapse
rate is 92 per cent. The immune system takes a beating and everything
shuts down."

The cooking process is extremely dangerous since the combination of
lithium, ether and ammonium can be explosive.

The police will not enter a home, which contains a cooking lab
without having the fire and ambulance on site.

"Just opening the door could cause an explosion," he said. Even
though the police wear protective gear and face masks, they still
have to be decontaminated after a bust. Many chemicals and
contaminants are left in the homes long after the lab is dismantled.

"New legislation requires us as police services, and real estate
agents, to notify the potential buyers (of former lab sites)," he said.

Processing causes many problems to the environment and contaminates
ground water and wells if the building is near any.

"For every pound of meth that's cooked, there's seven pounds of waste
to dispose of," said Ciotkas. Usually people will either flush it
down the toilet or dump it in their backyards.

It takes between 60 and 70 years for the toxic waste to be cleaned
through the natural environmental processes.

"There's been many times I've run into a basement very quickly and
have to throw open a window," he said. "Now the guys all wear masks.
We didn't know what we were dealing with years ago."

Through reports, the police are finding that marijuana is spiked with
meth, which can be extremely dangerous for teenagers who are looking
to experiment.

"A lot of older adults didn't have dangerous drugs," he said. "This
stuff is affordable and accessible."

By staying in tune with their children and keeping channels of
communication open, parents have a key role in circumventing the
possibility of drug addiction.

"I find now through education, addiction researchers and
psychologists go to the root of the problem," said Ciotkas. "Taking
drugs is a reaction to something else going on in people's lives."

People should take note of homes in their neighbourhoods, which have
a high volume of traffic at all hours of the night. It could be foot,
vehicle or taxi cab traffic, he said.

G&M is presenting a second seminar in the series on May 30. It's
called Dealing with Severe Allergic Reactions and Anaphylaxis.

Home Safety is the final session, planned for June 6. Called The
Stephanie Gaetz Story, it features former world pair's champion and
child safety advocate Barbara Underhill. Gaetz was Underhill's
eight-month-old daughter, who drowned in the family pool in 1993.

To register for any of the events coming up, call the hospital at 444-8645.