DRUG COPS PRESENTATION ALERTS PARENTS TO CRYSTAL METH THREAT

You could hear a pin drop in the gymnasium at Beaver Brae Secondary
School Nov. 22 when North Dakota drug agent Mike Marchus spoke to the
student body about the drug crystal meth.

Kenora Police sponsored the visit by Marchus and fellow agent Rob
Browne, who have battled the spread of the drug in their state for
five years.

Marchus showed several photographs of a Hollywood, Florida crystal
meth addict taken over eight years.

In 1980, she looked like a suburban mom with a pleasant face and long
blond hair. By 1988, she was unrecognizable with an unsmiling thin
face, dark circles under her eyes and hallow cheeks.

"This drug is in our community," said Deputy Police Chief Dan
Jorgensen. "All drugs are bad. This one is particularly evil."

Last week alone, Marchus and Browne shut down three crystal meth labs
in North Dakota.

"Five years ago we first started to see an explosion of meth," Marchus
said.

Browne, who addressed a public meeting of parents and concerned
citizens Monday night, referred to the growth in use of the drug as an
"epidemic that has spread throughout the U.S."

In North Dakota, police first dealt with two crystal meth labs in
1997. The number was five in 1998, 16 in 1999, 47 in 2000 and 148 in
2001. In 2002, police hit 275 crystal meth labs and it was 295 last
year. This year, Browne said, the number so far is 210.

"Hopefully, you'll never have the problem we have," Browne said.
"Hopefully you can be proactive."

Jorgensen isn't naive and doesn't want the community to be either.
"There are drugs in our community, there are drug addicts in our
community and worst of all there are drug dealers in our community
willing to sell to our children."

Jorgensen was blunt. "We know there are crystal meth addicts in
Kenora. It's highly, highly addictive. It's very easily manufactured.
One of our biggest fears is that sooner or later, once enough people
are addicted to it here, somebody's going to start a lab."

Addictions Services Kenora counsellor Jeffrey Leroux, who set up a
booth at Beaver Brae during Monday's presentations to students and
later the public, said, "It's gotten bad this year. It's really scary
to me as a counsellor. A lot of really young people are getting hooked
into it." Leroux said the drug is used by youths from all
backgrounds.

"It's not just down and outers," said Tri-Force drug unit officer
Grant Cowles. Users, he said, range in age from teens to some in their
30s. "It's quick, high potency and cheap," Browne said. "If you can
bake a cake, you can make this pill."

Called ice, speed, crank or glass, the drug can be "snorted, injected
or inhaled," Marchus said.

A gram the size of a sugar packet costs $100 to $150.

Users pay a much higher cost as Browne said it is the "most physically
and psychologically addictive drug I've been in contact with in 13
years (on the job).

"It causes the brain to release neurotransmitters," he said. The first
hit is the "most unbelievable euphoric high. You'll never see that
high again. It's all downhill from there."

In the short term, you have more energy, but in the long term, you're
wasted, he said.

Some users go 15 days without sleeping, then crash.

The body will rob nutrients trying to survive.

The effects are scary.

Feeling bugs under their skin, users will pick at the skin and get
sores.

They get delusional, "seeing people in trees," Marchus
said.

They also get aggressive and irritable.

The results are elevated respiration and heart rates -- up to 200
beats per minute, 132 beats per minute more than the resting heart
rate; suppressed appetite and rapid-rapid weight loss -- 40-50 lb
losses in 30 days are not uncommon; sleep deprivation and paranoia --
Browne said everybody believes there's a cop out to get them.

In one example, drug agents had a search warrant for a shack that had
been broken into by users, Marchus said. The users tore the panelling
off the walls, thinking the police had planted surveillance cameras.

One user called a police station and remained on hold for 45 minutes,
waiting to talk to a police officer.

"I have chest pains," he said. "Kidney souls have entered my body. I
need to have this stopped. Exorcise them."

A user will have high blood pressure, a body that smells like
mayonnaise, dilated pupils, rotten teeth and appear unkempt.

"People don't know what they've got until they lose it," said a boy in
a video shown by the drug agents.

Speaking from a penitentiary in the U.S., he said, "You lose family,
friends, not being able to finish high school."

Beaver Brae student Kendra O'Hearn, 16, said the pictures were "really
gruesome."

Another student said she hadn't seen the drug in the school but
"thought it was."

Beaver Brae principal Al Wray told parents Monday night, like local
police, they've been hearing about the drug for about five or six months.

"It's going to grab our young people really quickly and really hard
unless we watch out for it," said Wray. "The whole community has to
get behind this."

Browne told parents asking what they can do to "keep the lines of
communication open" and "don't be afraid to know what your children
are up to."

He said children do "make stupid decisions, but you have to address
that stupid decision."

The Beaver Brae school council is hoping to initiate a dialogue in the
community to come up with proactive approaches to fight the problem.

That may mean education of retailers of what ingredients crystal meth
manufacturers will be trying to buy in bulk to requesting a further
police presence in the community, said council co-chairman Willa Toovey.