DON'T ASSUME METH LABS AREN'T HERE: DRUG UNIT COP

There's meth in the madness of the local drug scene say local police officials.

It's a common myth that labs which produce illegal drugs such crystal meth
are usually found in large, urban centres, said Det. Sgt. Jamie Ciotka
commander of the Huronia Combined Forces Drug Unit.

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