METH PLAGUE SPREADING IN CITY'S YOUTH

Crystal meth is in Prince George and it's taking over in a big way, but
it's not too late to hit back. That's the message civic leaders, social
workers, elected officials and educators heard from police and recovering
addicts during a forum hosted by the Community Planning Council on Thursday.

"It is not uncommon for kids in Grade 8 in Prince George to be doing meth,"
said

RCMP Const. Craig Douglass. "This drug, because it is so cheap and so
accessible, is available at every level of society."

Douglass said the two biggest problems with meth is it costs half as much
as cocaine and the high lasts 10 times longer. The consequences are
exponentially worse, too, Douglass reported.

The effects of regular crystal meth use include violent behaviour,
unusually aggressive tendencies, and a long list of serious physical
deterioration. It happens quick and it happens in ugly fashion, he said.

Backing him up were two teens who agreed to attend the forum and tell their
story of meth addiction. Both are now involved in the Future Cents program
which aims at keeping them drug-free and on a path to permanent recovery.

One boy described using meth once, then again eight months later, then
again six months later, until it was daily use and his body was falling
apart before his eyes. He knew he had to make a choice.

"For me, I knew it was death or meth," he said, now three months clean.
"(In recovery) there are days you think of nothing else but using. I've
gone weeks or months where it isn't a big urge, but then it will just hit you."

"I found it was very easy to get, just a couple of calls," said one girl,
who started using at the age of 15. "My friends were trying it so I did,
that's where it started. The withdrawals are horrible. You rely on this
drug to make you happy and if you stop using it, it feels like you've been
hit by a bus."

The teens implored those assembled to do whatever they could to make it
harder to get meth. Any little thing to set up little roadblocks would have
an impact at schoolyard level, they said, because for most kids starting
out on the drugs, it is all about convenience.

For law enforcement that mostly means making the manufacturing of the drug
harder to do.

Cpl. Paul Collister said he recently took part in an exercise with the
consent of Wal-Mart. Officers went shopping at a Lower Mainland Wal-Mart
store and came out with all the ingredients necessary to brew up a batch of
meth. How do you regulate the sale of common household items without
infringing on basic Canadian rights?

"We assume that there are meth labs here in Prince George," Collister said.
"These labs, unless you really know what you're doing, are usually really
dirty, really messy, and really dangerous to anyone who comes close."

The cooking process throws off deadly gasses, it produces five pounds of
toxic waste for every pound of drug it creates, that waste gets dumped into
public places or water supplies, or into drains and sewers where it becomes
a hazard and worst of all it is highly explosive. This endangers
neighbours, but also firefighters sent to put out the fires that often
spring up in these clandestine kitchens.