SHATTERED DREAMS

As a parent, you think, is there something I did wrong?" asks Linda, whose
son has been hooked on crystal methamphetamine - or "meth," as it's
commonly called - for the past five years.

"Or is there something that happened to him during his childhood that he
hasn't dealt with?"

The tragic reality of meth is that it is extremely accessible, affordable
and produces a very long high. This "new crack" is marketed to youth of all
demographics, and is devastating families in not just in Kamloops, but
around the world.

On Wednesday, Kamloops This Week spoke with two people whose lives have
been forever changed by crystal meth - a mother, whose son is undergoing
drug rehab, and a teenager who has been clean and off the drug for more
than a year.

Both spoke on the condition of anonymity and their names have been changed.

Sarah, 17, was introduced to meth through a friend when she was 15. She
says the first time she used it, she didn't feel anything, but wanted to do
it again.

"Your mind is going a million miles a minute. I had to always be doing
something, and as soon as I started coming down, I would either need more
or I would get really grumpy, really moody and really angry."

Her highs would be between four and five hours - unless she kept using,
sometimes stretching her run to more than a week.

Her increased metabolism, combined with lack of sleep and food, caused her
to drop 40 pounds in three months.

"My mom, when I first started using crystal meth, thought I was using pot,"
Sarah says. "She didn't know until I was really bad into it that something
was really wrong."

Linda, whose son is in rehab for the second time, also had no idea her son
was using.

"It wasn't as though I was one of those moms who didn't know where my kids
are," she says.

Her son progressed from pot to cocaine to ecstasy. In his early 20s, he was
a member of the party crowd and would use ecstasy before heading to bars.

"And now for five years it has been crystal," Linda says.

Sarah last used crystal meth in January 2003. She ended up in a youth
correctional centre - and went cold turkey for three and a half months.

"It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life. I don't
think I would have been able to do it on my own."

For the two weeks, Sarah says, all she did was eat, sleep, scream and yell.
From the youth centre, Sarah moved in with her grandparents and then on to
a rehabilitation centre where she received counselling and relapse
prevention work.

Linda's son was busted for possession, and is in rehab on a court order.

Sober for a year and a half, Sarah has a job and is working towards her
Dogwood diploma.

"I have an awesome life. I have choice in my life today."