CRACK COCAINE NO. 1 CHOICE OF ADDICTS

Hooked sometimes after using it only once or twice, crystal meth addicts
"fry their brains", says Const. Brad Myhre of the Penticton RCMP's task force

"We deal with people who are relatively long-term users and their thought
processes are a mess. They're irrational and paranoid. There's no such
thing as using crystal meth socially. You use it and you're insane." The
drug consumes them, said Myhre. "You have no control over it and that's a
real concern when it's young people we're talking about." The crystal meth
high -- euphoric, aggressive and agitated -- is similar to that of smoking
crack cocaine, said Myhre

But crystal meth is much cheaper than cocaine. "A young person with $10 or
$15 in their pocket can buy a "point" of meth which is only 1/10 gram in
weight. By using that, they'll be high for anywhere from seven to 10
hours." If a person smoked the same quantity of crack cocaine he'd be high
for only 10 or 15 minutes

Crystal meth users can build up a tolerance requiring they use five to 10
times the initial dose to get high

Crystal meth can be used three ways -- the same as cocaine or heroin:
smoked, usually in a small, glass pipe; snorted and, rarely, injected

While use of crystal meth in Penticton is on the rise, crack cocaine is
still the No. 1 choice of addicts here, said Myhre. "Crack (cocaine) can
only be smoked, though some addicts will try and inject it using orange
juice, apple juice, lemon juice. If you can believe it, they will inject
that into their arms.

"Each week, Penticton RCMP make at least one arrest for possession for the
purpose of trafficking, almost always for cocaine," added the constable

In the past year, there have been 14 seizures of crystal meth ranging from
traces to multi grams, said Sgt. John Niznikowski, officer in charge of the
General Investigation Section of the Penticton RCMP

"For cocaine possession, there were 57 investigations and 98 in trafficking
in the past year," said Niznikowski

He couldn't say how many convictions there were, but Myhre said, "When we
lay charges, I would say the majority get convicted."