COPS BRACE FOR CRYSTAL METH'S ARRIVAL

Drug of the millennium on way from west coast

Crystal meth's popularity has spread across British Columbia over the past
four years as fast as a wildfire in the interior.

Now law enforcement experts agree, York Region and the rest of the Greater
Toronto Area could be the next logical destination for the dangerous drug
and labs that create it.

"If it's not there now, you can bet it soon will be," said Corp. Scott
Rintoul with the RCMP's drug enforcement branch in B.C. "In the 1980s there
was coke. In the '90s crack. In the new millennium, it's all about crystal
meth."

Crystal methamphetamine, also known as meth, speed, crank, or ice, is a
cooked-up combination of over-the-counter cold medication containing
ephedrine or pseudoephedrine and household chemical products.

Recipes are just an Internet search away; the ingredients can be bought at
any pharmacy and hardware store and a rudimentary knowledge of chemistry is
all that's needed to cook up a batch in the privacy of your own home.

For police, home brew dope, similar to meth, is considered one of the
biggest threats to the future of public safety, York Regional Police Chief
Armand La Barge said.

"Drugs are always a concern, but these new types of drugs, the drugs you can
manufacture in your home and make millions in profits, they are a definite
threat," he said.

Having watched the suburban explosion of large scale marijuana grow
operations and chemical ecstasy labs in York, Chief La Barge says illicit
drug trends in Canada have followed a familiar path, moving from the United
States into B.C. and then across the country to the GTA.

Police fear crystal meth will follow a similar road.

The drug has already risen in popularity, moving from California to the
border state of Washington, where almost 1,400 crystal meth labs were busted
last year.

And it's been seen on this side of the border in ever increasing numbers
since 2000, Corp. Rintoul said.

RCMP officers conducted 40 meth lab raids in 2004. There were none in 2000.

"It's probably always been here, it just wasn't getting the attention drugs
like crack, cocaine and heroin were getting," he said. "Now it is."

Concern from police and health authorities alike stems from the fact crystal
meth has a tendency to completely take control of a user.

"And the end result is either psychosis or death," Corp. Rintoul said. "It's
an ugly drug. It's not like cocaine. This drug is a lot worse."

Smoke, snort or shoot a $5 or $10 bag and the high might last 12 to 16
hours.

The high energy, incredibly addictive nature of the drug sees users binge,
going without sleep and eating very little for sometimes five or six days at
a time.

"Crystal meth is pretty scary," said Wende Wood, a pharmacist at the Centre
for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. "Unlike a lot of drugs, you
won't find too many recreational users. It sure has a hold on people and it
can destroy lives."

On a binge, what's called tweaking, the effects of starvation and sleep
depravation set in and aggressive behaviour and psychosis take over.

"A lot of it's just the lack of sleep and over the short term that should go
away, when the drug is out of the system and they get some rest. But if
someone uses for years, there could be some permanent psychosis," Ms Wood
said.

Like a lot of illicit drugs, because people tend to be multi-drug users,
specific long-term effects are tough to pin down, but Ms Wood said meth can
cause cardiovascular and spinal cord damage, tooth decay and gum disease.

Methamphetamine drugs have been around since the 1970s, but, like ecstasy,
this latest crystal form of the drug discovered a newfound popularity in the
rave scene of the late '90s.

Cheaper to produce than ecstasy, but giving ravers the same sense of
unlimited energy, dealers began mixing it in with ecstasy to increase
profits.

With the rave scene dying down, meth moved to clubs, the streets and
eventually high schools, Corp. Rintoul said.

Highly addictive drugs like crack, cocaine and heroin have long had a
foothold in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, but meth has managed to make its
way into suburban and rural communities surrounding the city.

"Places like Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Squamish, Maple Ridge," Corp. Rintoul
said. "It's all over the smaller communities."

While police say organized crime figures have taken over control of most of
the ecstasy and marijuana production in York and across the country, setting
up large scale grows and labs, crystal meth has gone in a different
direction.

"It's mostly the small mom-and-pop labs that yield about a half an ounce per
cook," Corp. Rintoul said. "It's not organized crime, at least not yet."

The smaller scale of the labs doesn't render them any less dangerous,
however.

Many of the solvents and acids used to cook meth are toxic, highly flammable
and as combustible as anything used in an ecstasy lab.

The fact a cook may also be a user who has been high for three days doesn't
help either, Corp. Rintoul said.

But the size of the labs may just be the reason police haven't seen many in
York Region to date and why we may not see very many in the near future,
York drug squad Det.-Sgt. Karen Noakes said.

"Of course we have concerns about any type of chemical labs being set up in
York Region. But so far, the trend here has been towards the larger scale
ecstasy labs. We haven't seen a lot of the mom-and-pop, small labs
associated with crystal meth. The trend here is the super labs," she said.

Mom-and-pop meth labs usually service small existing addict populations,
often taking over on streets and areas where crack and cocaine use once
dominated.

Unlike some larger cities, York Region municipalities don't have
neighbourhoods or streets wrought with drug problems, which means the
ready-made market for meth is not here, Det.-Sgt. Noakes said.

Unless organized crime gets involved and sets up meth super labs to pump out
huge quantities of the drug, we probably won't see too many crystal
operations in York, she added.

"I can't deny that it's coming here at all," she said. "We're just not
seeing it right now."

Addiction Services for York Region counsellors have yet to treat any meth
addicts locally, claiming it usually takes up to three years once a drug
hits the streets before they start seeing addicts seeking help.

Even in Toronto, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health has yet to see
the big boom in meth addicts some fear may be on the way, Ms Wood said.

But while it may not be produced in big numbers locally or have a presence,
dealers are trying to get it here.

Authorities found 29 kilograms of crystal, about $12 million worth, on a
plane from Vancouver to Toronto in March, indicating super labs are up and
running out west and the drug's current producers are after the GTA market.

"You may not have a problem now, but you will," Corp. Rintoul said.