METH TALE TRAGIC

The young man calls himself Max. I have no idea if it is his real name, his
street name or just a name he made up. What difference does it make? Max is
19 years old. He weighs 93 pounds. He is a crystal methamphetamine addict.

This is his story, told in the hope that others will learn from his many
and varied mistakes.

"If I can prevent just one person from going down the terrible road I'm on,
then I will have done something positive with my life."

It starts with a childhood wasted, and Max is pretty sure how it will
eventually conclude. He does not expect a happy ending.

He will never forget what would become a fateful day. It was Jan. 21, 1992,
his seventh birthday. "That was the first time I tried weed," he says.
"Man, was I high!" This is the life, he thought. It doesn't get any better
than this.

But it would get worse.

"I got into drug dealing with my older brother," he says. "By the time I
was 12, I was addicted to cocaine, pot, alcohol and mushrooms. I was making
about a grand a day."

He was busted for the first time that year. He has had 49 drug charges. "I
just laughed because I knew the cops couldn't really do anything," he says.
The money kept coming. "I spent it like it grew on trees."

Max went to school, but mostly just to deal his drugs. Life became a
vicious cycle. School, sell drugs, smoke drugs, drink ... "I kept this up
until I was 16."

Then he started smoking crystal meth. At the time he could read at a Grade
12 level. That would change.

He became a father that same year, but even a child couldn't force him to
clean up his act.

"He is in foster care," Max says. "I put him there to protect him from me."

That was also the year his brother went to prison for attempted murder.
"That didn't even slow me down," he says.

In the space of 12 months, he lost his grandmother and mother to cancer and
his girlfriend to a drunk driver. He was in the Remand Centre when his
mother died. What was left of his family disowned him.

"I dropped out of school. I kept doing and selling drugs."

He headed to Montreal and what he hoped would be a fresh start. He was
kicked out of drug rehab for selling dope. Max had been back on the streets
for less than 48 hours when he was arrested and charged with possession of
a kilogram of cocaine.

He paid his own bail, $25,000. And he ran.

"I hoped I could start a new life again, out here," he says.

It turns out he couldn't. It didn't matter what his address was by his 18th
birthday, there was no escape from what was now a living hell.

"I was arrested and charged with assault 18 days after arriving back in
Edmonton," Max says.

Last August he got out of jail. Not that there is no chance that he will
eventually be going back. Crime and punishment is really all he knows.

"I still deal dope," he says. "I still smoke meth. I still spend money like
there is no end of it."

The damage, so much damage, has already been done.

"Now, because of my drug abuse, I can't read anymore. I barely sleep
anymore. I hardly eat anymore. I used to have muscles, lots of muscles. Now
I have none."

It was the crystal methamphetamine that pushed him over the edge. As a
result, he says, "I have led a violent, unpredictable, unhappy life. I
don't want anyone to see the things I have seen."

If you won't listen to your parents, Max pleads with you to listen to him.
There is no upside. There is no happily ever after with this stuff. And
once it grabs you, it will be the fight of your life to break free.

It's like your brain is the first thing to go. But it will not be the last.

"If you do crystal meth or you know someone who does, detox is the only
answer," he says. "Even if you're too far gone to care about yourself, if
you care about someone else, then do it for them. This is the only place
you can get real help. If you ask for it, you will receive it."

Getting into hard drugs is the easy part, Max says. Getting off hard drugs
is difficult, but not impossible. "I have no support, but I want to be
there for others," he says.

The Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission detoxification centre is at
10302 107 St. The telephone number is 780-427-4291. The 24-hour AADAC
help-line number is 1-866-332-2322. Tell them Max sent you.