A MESSAGE ON METH FROM JAIL

Experts Impressed With Forum Attendance

The highly addictive and potentially deadly drug called crystal meth
is here and it is ruining lives.

That message was hammered home over and over at a town forum on Monday
(April 11) -- most effectively when a letter from an inmate was read.

Anita Prine stood up at the end of the meeting, hands shaking and
voice faltering, to announce she was 51 days clean and wanted to share
a letter written by her husband, Neil Mattson.

Prine's bold decision to share her struggle with meth came after more
than two hours of presentations from various experts.

Once the presentations were finished there was a question and answer
session for a large panel of experts on hand for the meeting.

Prine was the last audience member to indicate she wanted to
speak.

"It all started at a very young age, 13, 14 years old," Prine said
reading from the letter written by her husband from a jail cell in
Port Coquitlam. "Alcohol was the first of my addictions and the first
of many monkeys to climb upon my back. Over the next 20 years it sent
me to jail on several occasions for impaired driving and various other
minor offences. As I got old I tried cocaine. At first I would just
snort it but it wasn't long before my second monkey climbed aboard my
back: injecting cocaine. I was in love."

Prine continued to read the four-page letter, pausing a few times to
stifle or wipe away tears. Mattson explained in the letter he went
from job to job, in and out of jail and tried several times to stop
using drugs.

The drugs called him back every time.

He moved away from Squamish and thought he had his addiction beat but
he said he soon returned to old ways.

"Then came the biggest monkey of them all," Mattson
wrote.

That monkey was meth.

"This was the wonder drug, or so I thought," he wrote. "I could stay
awake for days and get absolutely nothing done. I began to sell it to
support my habit."

Mattson turned his wife onto the drug. He reported his credibility was
lost, he ruined his wife's credit rating, he lost any chance of having
a good job and in February the couple lost their home.

He recently entered a guilty plea after being charged after police
discovered he had explosives that were stolen from the Sea to Sky
University.

According to Mattson he would never have done it if the meth monkey
had never climbed upon his back pushing for just one puff.

He feels being arrested was more like a rescue.

Mattson finished the letter by urging those at the forum to listen and
prevent meth from ruining any lives.

The matter of the explosives charges laid against Mattson was the
topic of a court hearing in North Vancouver on Tuesday (April 12). The
matter was set over to next Tuesday to set a date for sentencing.

Mattson's situation matched scenarios presented earlier in the evening
by Roger Lake, an expert from Washington State who now is a part-time
Furry Creek resident.

Lake shared examples of busts he was involved in where meth labs were
set up in houses occupied by babies.

The power of the drug caused the so-called meth-cooks to lose their
instinct to adequately look after their young children.

Meth is the most powerful central nervous system stimulant known and
the drug is considered an epidemic in Washington State, Lake said.

"Parents are the number one source of information for young people,"
Lake stressed over and over. He encouraged the parents in the audience
of 250 to connect with their children and remind them regularly of the
dangers of drug use.

Dr. Jim Jamieson said local medical professionals see the affects of
meth use in Squamish. He said evidence of meth abuse rose dramatically
in the last year or two. Doctors are seeing overdose cases in the
emergency room and chronic abusers seeking help in the various offices
around town.

He concluded his talk by saying the best way to deal with meth is not
to start using it.

Neil, a 28-year-old Squamish resident introduced to readers of The
Chief on March 28, also addressed the crowd with his parents in the
audience hearing him speak for the first time.

Sgt. Colin Worth was asked what residents can do if they know someone
is selling meth and he told the audience to share the knowledge with
the RCMP. He said that can be done by calling the local detachment or
calling Crimestoppers.

"Your call will tip us off and we will do a number of hours of
investigation," Worth said.

Dave Hildreth, the host of the evening, said the objective of the
evening was to increase awareness of the meth issue.

The objective was achieved through the forum and the newspaper, radio
and television coverage leading up to the event.