METH USE WREAKS HAVOC IN CHICAGO

Money gone, credit cards maxed and most of his relationships ruined,
Mike M.'s priorities shifted toward a drug that presented a soulless
existence: crystal meth.

All he could concentrate on was the selfish satisfaction the drug gave
him. Convinced he had a skin infection that was causing ingrown hairs,
the resident of Chicago's North Side Lakeview neighborhood pulled out
most of the hair on his body; easily spending six hours in one sitting
tweezing out his eyelashes and eyebrows, along with the hair on his
arms, legs, head and pubic region.

When he first started using crystal methamphetamine, a synthetic drug
that acts as a powerful stimulant on the central nervous system, Mike
was more social, more alert and more active. Everything he did was
done faster and with more intensity. Feeling strong and invincible at
27, he was able to study longer for his MBA and work harder at his
job. He was even happy.

Downward spiral

Just weeks after his first taste, he lost his ability to make
appropriate judgments. Feeling invincible and powerful, he engaged in
unprotected sex, which became his number one priority. Within a few
months he was using meth daily, and by the time he checked himself
into rehab on his 30th birthday, he was an emotionless zombie.

In a way, Mike M. considers himself lucky. Now 34 and sober, he
realizes that he walked away from the drug without getting infected
with HIV-AIDS. Mike, who is unable to give his last name as a member
of the Crystal Meth Anonymous support group, thought it would be a
one-time drug experience. As a former alcoholic, Mike wanted to try
the drug years ago.

"The drinking wasn't enough to keep the snow moving and blurring my
reality," he said. Now, looking at the scars covering his body, he
remembers a drug that sucked him under and nearly destroyed his life.

Methamphetamine use is an increasing problem nationwide--some go as
far as calling it a plague--and has hit the Midwest hard. But now, the
drug is traveling from rural downstate and is reaching Chicago.

The 'beast' called meth

A few years ago, use of crystal meth in Chicago didn't register even a
blip on the Drug Enforcement Administration's radar. Now, health
officials and state police are becoming more aware of the drug's
threat to Chicago. Meth puts any user at risk for HIV because the
drug's euphoric component causes many users to engage in unprotected
sex.

David McKirnan knows from experience that Chicago has a growing
problem on its hands. A researcher at Howard Brown Health Center on
the city's North Side, McKirnan sees participants of his program who
are in bad shape because of the influence of methamphetamine. These
rehabilitation program participants undergo a lot more physical damage
and intense addiction than any other user of club drugs out there, he
said. The relapse rate is about 94 percent, according to a University
of California study.

Although McKirnan warns that methamphetamine abuse isn't just a gay
problem, he admits that it has become a problem in Chicago's gay community.

"Clearly, the numbers are increasing," said McKirnan, referring to a
2001 community survey where six or seven percent of participants
reported any use at all, and two percent reported monthly abuse. Data
collected by Howard Brown in 2004 shows that out of 500 HIV positive
men, 18 percent used meth. McKirnan said these numbers indicate that
in Chicago meth has climbed its way up the ladder through the years
and proved itself to be one of the top gateways to HIV infection.

"Crack used to be a predictor of infection. Meth is probably
superseding this fact," McKirnan warned.

Methamphetamine, also known on the streets as crystal, ice, meth,
glass, Tina, and speed, typically comes as a white powder that easily
dissolves in water. Ice or crystal meth looks like clear, chunky
crystals. Brightly colored tablets are another form found on the streets.

In medical terms, methamphetamine is a highly addictive "upper" that
releases the chemical dopamine, which regulates pleasure in the brain.
This release leaves the user with a sense of euphoria that lasts for
about 30 minutes, compared with the five-minute euphoria cocaine users
experience, said Bruce Leibi of the Illinois State Police. Meth can be
snorted, smoked, ingested or digested, can be cooked from household
ingredients, and is incredibly potent and is relatively
inexpensive.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to make it," said Stacy Bridges,
head of the "Life or Meth" campaign in Chicago. There are thousands of
recipes available online, according to Illinois State Police.

The drug's primary danger is that it erodes impulse control. Users, or
"tweakers" are "spun out of control," Leibi said. "Tweaking" is the
24-hour coming-down period after the euphoric high is finished. During
this time, users can get extremely agitated and violent; many users
take the drug multiple times a day to continue a state of euphoria. It
is not uncommon for users to stay up for days on end. The average user
Leibi met during DEA busts would stay awake 14 days straight. Chronic
use can result in detrimental health problems such as inflammation of
the heart lining, lead poisoning, irregular heartbeat, stroke, brain
damage and lung damage, according to the DEA.

Meth debuts in the Midwest

Yet meth is still a fringe phenomenon nationwide when compared with
other drugs such as cocaine. According to a National Institute on Drug
Abuse survey on drug use and health in 2002, more than 12 million
Americans at least 12 years of age, or 5.3 percent of the population,
had tried meth at least once. The largest percentage of users rests
between the ages of 18 and 25 in Illinois, and the drug is primarily
used among whites, according to Illinois State Police.

"We've seen it destroy central Illinois, parts of Wisconsin and
Indiana, but Chicago, it really hasn't taken hold," said DEA-Chicago
special agent Mark Warpness.

Illinois State Police and the DEA see a growing amount of activity
concentrated on the city's North Side in the gay nightclub scene, but
that circle may be widening, Warpness said.

An increasing number of arrests, reaching double digits for the first
time, were made for possession in 2004 on the North Side's Town Hall
police district. Two men and a woman were charged with running a meth
lab in a Lake View apartment in March, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
In early November, two Chicago Public School teachers made headlines
when they were arrested within one week of each other for trafficking
methamphetamine. One, a Lakeview resident and fifth-grade teacher, was
found in November with more than $17,000 in meth, according to the
Chicago Sun-Times.

HIV and meth

In an era of new medicine and safe-sex awareness campaigns, meth has
another frightening side-effect: skyrocketing HIV rates. Meth puts
users at a much greater risk for contracting HIV, according to health
officials. McKirnan said meth comes with a direct sexual connection by
causing dopamine to be released into the brain, a chemical that
enhances mood, self-confidence and sex drive. Many will use it because
of the increased sex drive, and often have unprotected sex when high,
putting people at an increased risk for disease, McKirnan said.

Speaking from recovery, Mike M. said everything he did was for that
moment. Anything beyond the next 30 seconds mattered very little to
him. Sex had become his highest priority, to the point where he would
masturbate for six to 12 hours at a time, often injuring himself.

"I had no control though because the effect of the drug on my
'pleasure center' was so incredibly powerful that any negative
consequences were worth that feeling," he said. "I felt more powerful
and more invincible, so I'm sure I had sex with more people and was
less safe than I ever would have been."

See next week's issue for part two in the Chronicle's coverage of
crystal meth.