FIGHTING CRYSTAL METH

After getting fitted with a caged hockey helmet, shoulder pads and a
kidney belt, Debbie, a West Vancouver mother of three, politely asked
the sporting goods salesman to punch her as hard as he could.

"I was getting ready for the physical confrontation," she
explained.

Debbie's fighting crystal meth.

Her daughter Julia (not her real name) is like most teenaged
girls.

She's crazy about MSN-ing friends, makeup, exercising and counting
calories. Last week, during an interview with The Outlook, Julia,
decked out in a grey Ecko sweat top and pants, had just stepped out
of the shower and wanted her mother to French Braid her long,
raven-coloured hair before it dried.

She seems, in fact, just like any other 14-year-old girl " except when
she's craving crystal meth, a drug she became addicted to at age 13. When
she's withdrawing from the highly addictive drug, known on the street as
"ice" or "glass," Julia becomes irritable and violent.

For those wondering if the new North Shore Task Force on Crystal
Meth, which began a 90-day awareness campaign earlier this month, is
necessary in these parts, just ask Julia's mother.

The confrontations with her daughter often turn physical so Debbie,
who has been injured by her daughter in the past, decided to buy the
protective hockey gear.

She noted that it was during this heightened state of agitation
during crystal meth withdrawal that her daughter typically prepared
to "run away and get drugs."

To try and stop her, Debbie locked up her daughter's clothes and
makeup, which only angered her more.

If it wasn't so tragic, it would be comical, she said about donning
the hockey gear.

Debbie, first spoke to The North Shore Outlook in November about the
death-grip crystal meth had on her daughter, a former cheerleader and
competitive gymnast.

When she was just 13, Julia, while living in a group home in North
Vancouver, met a younger girl who introduced her to crystal meth.

After she first tried the drug inside the washroom of a hotel at the
corner of Hastings and Renfrew, she felt completely blissed-out and
addicted.

"I would just leave the house and do it for five days straight," she
said last week. "I wanted to stop, but it is hard. It's addiction."

Her nascent drug addiction bloomed quickly.

More often than not she got the drugs for free from
dealers.

Still, even when she had to the pay for the drug it was cheap: $20
for "five points." (A point is the equivalent of 1/10 of a gram.)

When she was using, Julia wouldn't eat much, often losing 15 pounds
or more during an extended drug binge.

"I did it every weekend," the teenager confided. Once she was gone
from home for 12 straight days but it didn't seem that long in her
drug-addled reality because the days melted together when she was
"tweaking."

It left her mother with a growing sense of dread.

Her cycle of meth use lasted, typically, for five days. Then she'd
arrive on her mother's doorstep. She was thin, dehydrated, and often
had sores on her face from picking at her skin.

In a handwritten letter penned from inside the Burnaby Youth Custody
Centre in October, Julia explained, "the first time I ever picked up
that drug I loved it. More than anything I've ever done before. I
felt a connection with this substance. Then I started using more,
stealing more and sacrificing everything I had and meant to me just
for this drug."

During her lock-up at the youth detention centre, Debbie felt for the
first time in months an overwhelming sense of relief. She knew where
her daughter was; she knew her daughter was safe.

After a 43-day stint at BYCC, Julia was sent to Daughters and
Sisters, a B.C.-based drug treatment centre for young women 12 to 18
years old. However, she was kicked out of the program and sent home
to the care of her mother in late December.

At that point, she had been clean for close to three-and-a-half
months the longest stint she'd been drug-free since she had started using.

"Because I was in custody," Julia explained of her new-found
sobriety.

She wanted to stay clean.

"I was good and I didn't think I was going to use
again."

But kicking crystal meth is, according to addiction specialists, even
tougher than beating heroin or cocaine addictions.

"There isn't any other place to put her right now," her mother
explained.

But the longer Julia went without the drug, the worse the cravings
got. The crystal meth demons lurked.

"She was trying to manage it," her mother explained.

During the painful withdrawal, she had hallucinations she described
as "shadows, things crawling...dark ghosts." She would wake up
screaming and crawl into bed with her mother.

Julia wanted to get clean but knew what she was facing.

"She wanted me to lock her up and keep her at home," Debbie said.
"She was three-and-a-half months clean and then she had a relapse."

After the relapse, she started down the difficult road to sobriety
again.

As the hours and days passed, Julia became increasingly agitated.

On Jan. 9, police received a call from a mother who said her daughter
was breaking items in the house and kicking holes in the wall. When
police arrived, they eventually put handcuffs on her "based on her
erratic behavior."

"She became violent and allegedly spat on the officer," explained
Sgt. Paul Skelton.

While in the back seat of the police cruiser, she kicked out a side
window and damaged another. She was taken to WVPD headquarters and
later released on a "promise to appear" for a February court date,
facing charges of mischief and assaulting a police officer.

Then, two days later, police got a call from the mother whose
daughter had allegedly "become belligerent."

According to the dispatcher, the female caller was wearing a caged
hockey helmet and body armour. Police arrived and determined that no
assault had taken place.

"It's a very devastating addiction," said Skelton. "These people
aren't in a proper state of mind or acting in a rationale manner."

Skelton noted that officers have noticed that those on the drug often
are desensitized to pain. "They have a heightened sense of alertness,
it seems to dull some of the pain."

Debbie seems in a nearly impossible position.

Julia wants to be at home while she tries to get clean but the odds
for a complete recovery are drastically increased at a facility that
specializes in addictions.

Currently, she's on a wait-list for the Concurrent Disorder Program
in West Vancouver and the new "daytox" program in North Vancouver.

While she awaits a court date in February, Julia has been ordered by
a judge into home custody under 24/7 supervision of her mom.

"The amount of treatment beds and the people trained to deal with
these kids is lagging behind," she said, noting that it would be
helpful to have some sort of drug resource directory for parents.

For the moment, Julia is doing better, and the family remains firmly
behind her recovery.

Julia said she doesn't want to be preachy, but admits her own
experiences have made her realize that crystal meth is a dangerous
drug.

"It's not a good road to take."