STARK VIDEO TAKES A LOOK AT THE REALITY

The open sores, naked, emaciated bodies, and incessant babbling show
and tell just a fraction of the chaos surrounding crystal meth.

Death by Jib, a video released this week by Peace Arch Community
Services, was produced to show youth the reality of the drug, and its
impact.

"Your brain just turns into f...in' mush," Chris Reimer, an Abbotsford
youth, said on the video.

"I'm in school right now, I'm 19, and I'm still doing Grade 8
work."

"It was hard seeing," Reimer admitted after watching the video for the
first time at Elgin Park Secondary Wednesday. Crystal meth is "the
worst thing to do," he said.

It's been just a week since Reimer last used the drug. He got hooked
four years ago, while doing a house painting job. He wanted something
to help him stay awake and get the job done faster, and someone gave
him the drug free.

Estranged from his family for three weeks and struggling to get
through school, it's the price he's paid for his addiction.

He agreed to share his story in the hopes "I can get one kid to
stop."

Death by Jib is 18 minutes of stories like Reimer's, and worse. It's
in-your-face reality, told in the words of addicts and others affected
by crystal meth use.

Amber's high-speed, meth-induced babble rattles on about the
abuse.

Guys give her the drug in exchange for oral sex and other favours. She
has open sores on her face and body, and can only imagine what the
drug - a concoction of paint thinner and battery acid, among other
ingredients-is doing to her insides.

"Used and abused and f..in' worn out, drugged up and forgotten," she
said.

PACS' Kevin Letourneau, who secured a $25,000 grant from Fraser Health
Authority for the project, hopes Amber will see herself on the video,
and will seek treatment.

Many don't.

Crystal meth was a factor in 30 deaths last year.

In the last five years, it's become the number one reason behind youth
admissions to treatment centres, and is cropping up more on the
Peninsula, notably among young girls. The average age for first-time
use is 11 years.

Experts blame its popularity on the cheap cost, and a high that lasts
up to 12 hours. It's an appetite suppressant, and sexual stimulant.

Chelsea Norris, a former Semiahmoo Secondary student, shared her story
on Death by Jib. She got out. But not before trying to kill her mother
and her dog, and hooking many friends on the drug.

"It got to the point where I felt like I had no soul," she says on the
video.

"It's horrible; ruins all your family, friends, relationships,
everything."

Death by Jib was produced and directed by Michael Neitzel, who seven
years ago produced the hard-hitting heroin video Wrath of the Dragon.

Death by Jib will be distributed by Fraser Health through mental
health and other agencies, and is available at PACS.

Neitzel said Wednesday he's hoping Death by Jib will have the same
impact as Wrath of the Dragon.

"Drug addiction is a terrible thing, the more we know about it, the
more prepared we'll be to help these people who are in this trap they
can't get out of."

Letourneau, flooded with requests for the video, already has a sequel
in mind, aimed at professionals, teachers and counsellors.