YORK NEXT MARKET FOR DRUG?

Crystal Meth Dangerous To Produce, Use

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 BC. "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 home.

For police, home brew dope such as 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 BC and then across the country to the GTA.

The fear is crystal meth will follow a similar road.

The drug has already risen in popularity up through California to the
border state of Washington, where almost 1,400 crystal meth labs were
busted by police in 2004.

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 over 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 this
latest crystal form of the drug, like ecstasy, 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 the addicts seeking
help.

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

But while it may not be produced in big numbers locally or have a
presence, people 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.