DRUG DEALERS DON'T CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS

Police forces predict a new kind of evil will soon encroach on
Atlantic Canada. They anticipate that methamphetamines -- meth or
crystal meth -- will soon be offered for sale by drug dealers eager
to make a buck off the people who are willing to experiment with
their lethal concoctions.

When meth makes its way into a community, hardship arrives with it
- -- hardship for the user, hardship for the user's family and friends
and hardship for the community.

Those who attended the Communities in Crisis: West Prince Responds
public meeting last week got an earful and an eyeful on the harm
crystal meth can cause.

To try the drug is to risk one's life, because the cooks who
manufacture it are concerned about making a profit from it; they are
not concerned about its safety. That's one of the scariest things
about the drug: its composition is not always the same. The mixture
of chemicals can actually kill. Or they could make a user addicted
on the first try and, even if the second, third or subsequent

hits don't kill, those hits quickly take a dreadful toll on the
user's body. There is no quick fix; lives will be seriously harmed
by this horrible drug.

But the people who manufacture meth are not concerned. To them, the
goal is to make money. All they need is someone -- anyone -- who is
willing to try.

The home labs are lethal environments, dangerous to anyone who sets
foot on the property. The by-products are harmful to the
environment, but to the cook that's all part of the process of making money.

Illicit drugs are already common on the streets of Atlantic Canada,
and lives are being drastically altered because of them. Things will
only go from bad to worse if meth arrives.

Some drug dealers, the Communities in Crisis presentation pointed
out, are lacing other drugs, like marijuana, with meth. It's a
sneaky way to get their customers hooked on meth.

Ruthlessness is not unusual for people in the business of peddling
illegal drugs.

For the sake of the individuals whose lives would be harmed by meth
- -- or by the other harmful drugs already in the market, like
ecstasy, cocaine and prescription drugs that have made it into the
wrong hands -- we must be vigilant and be willing to help police put
the dealers out of business.

For it is the rest of society, not the drug dealers, who try to fit
the pieces of a drug-shattered life back together. By that time the
drug dealer has moved on to someone else.