CRYSTAL METH

Stark Video A Look At 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. To view Death by
Jib, call 604-538-2522.