NAPANEE METH USER DISCUSSES RECOVERY, EXPERIENCES

Methamphetamine Part 3

"Go ask Alice," is a line from the 1967 song entitled White Rabbit by
Jefferson Airplane.

This song linked Alice in Wonderland's dreamlike imagery to drug
culture by stating, "One pill will make you larger, and one pill will
make you small Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you
the call Go ask Alice when she's 10 feet tall."

Although she wasn't born when that song was popular, it was somehow
fitting when a recovering crystal meth addict from Napanee who agreed
to be interviewed chose to use the name Alice instead of her real name.

Alice has spent half of her young life under the influence of one
drug or another. She said she began her downward descent at 13 years old.

"I started with weed [marijuana]. It was easy to get and I smoked every day."

From there Alice graduated to mushrooms, acid and coke. These are
the street names for her drugs of choice.

Mushrooms, which are also referred to as magic mushrooms or shrooms,
contain the hallucinogen psilocybe. Acid, also a hallucinogen, is
slang for LSD or lysergic acid diethylamide. Coke is the street name
for cocaine.

Alice said, "It was curiosity at first and my friends were doing it.
I have heard of younger kids getting into ice (crystal meth) now but
that wasn't the case back then.

I'm 25 now and didn't get into it till I was 19 or 20."

Did Alice do anything exciting or productive when she was high?
"Mostly I would just hang out with friends, talk and listen to music,
when I wasn't sleeping," she said.

Alice's preferred method was smoking or snorting ice. "I used my own
personal money or [the drug] was given to me by friends."

Alice was elusive as to how she got the drug in Napanee.

"It's kind of hush-hush. I have no clue where it comes from. I don't
know if there are any labs around."

She said when her family found out, they "were taken aback. I moved
out and didn't speak to them for awhile," Alice said.

"I quit because I hit rock bottom, my lowest point, I wasn't working
and I wanted to change," said Alice.

This young woman said she wants to leave the harmful effects behind her.

"It affects your thinking and your body. It can give you rashes and
you can lose a lot of weight."

According to Alice, "You can overamp which could affect your heart."

Her counsellor, Annabelle Williams of Lennox &Addington Addiction
Services, was present at the interview.

Williams recounted when she was a nurse in Wales speed was, "Out
there on the streets of Cardiff. I knew people who died of overdoses
for cardiac reasons. Here, my experience has been with the aggression
- - and head injuries as a result of it."

Ice has also been known to make users paranoid.

As for withdrawal, Alice said that she had the sweats and cravings
for about two weeks, "I just kept busy or slept a lot. I still smoke
weed once in awhile and have a drink occasionally."

It has been almost three months since Alice gave up ice. "The first
part was hard - especially the social part. The cravings are mostly mental.

"I only have one friend who wasn't involved and she has stuck by me
through the whole thing," she added.

Alice isn't working at the moment but is looking for a job and
feeling positive about this upward swing in her life. She said she
wouldn't tell a prospective employer as, "It's not really any of
their business."

According to Williams, current treatment for crystal meth addiction
is counselling. It is effective only if you are ready and willing.

Williams said, "Relapses happen. It's not the end of the world."

Alice said, "You have to want to straighten up in order to get
yourself clean. You have to be honest."

Alice is one of 42 clients who received counselling at Lennox &
Addington Addictions Services, from January 1 to November 2 ,2005,
who identified amphetamines (which includes crystal meth) as a problem drug.

According to executive director Stafford Murphy, that represents
about six per cent of the case load.

Alcohol (38 per cent) and Cannabis (32 per cent) are still the two
main drugs of choice in the area.

Murphy qualifies the number by adding that many clients report using
a variety of substances. For example, some clients might identify
marijuana, opiods and alcohol as all being problems.

He also said this information is taken at intake and not always
updated until the client is discharged.

"With this in mind, the numbers for crystal meth might be
under-represented as we have anecdotal information which suggests
that clients who initially came to us for a different problem are
experimenting with crystal meth," he said.

The needle exchange program is 'very busy' according to Murphy.

He said not all of that is attributable to crystal meth as other
drugs are injectable, however, it is one piece of the puzzle.

Murphy concludes by saying the 'word on the street' he hears is that
there is "lots of crystal meth around town."

For more information about getting clean, and counselling, contact
Lennox & Addington Addictions Services at 354-6624. Their offices are
located at 37 Dundas Street West, Napanee.