SMOKING GUN

When you talk about drugs - really talk about them - it's amazing who
will listen. This Wednesday night, in the packed meeting room of the
West Richmond Community Centre, the crowd is all ears. And questions.

The topic is crystal meth - an illegal methamphetamine concoction that
is reaching frightening heights of popularity among Lower Mainland
drug users of all ages and social status.

In the crowd this night there's the young man with punk-rock hair and
face piercings seeking advice on how to best help a friend who's going
through his first drug rehabilitation.

"He's a big meth-head," the man says.

There's the mom with the tired-looking eyes who hasn't seen her son in
more than two years, ever since the same drug took hold of his young
life and lured him to the Downtown Eastside.

"It's a very sad story," she says. "I live every day hoping that he'll
be recovering soon."

There's the protective dad seated next to his still-innocent, pre-teen
daughter.

He's desperate to keep her safe from the temptations she'll soon face
- - at parties, on the school grounds, from her friends.

"How easy is it to be slipped the drug (crystal meth) in food or a
drink?" he asks.

And then there is Chelsea Trites, a slight blond in her early 20s with
a wry smile and an eyebrow ring.

A recovering meth addict, Trites is "the voice" behind this evening's
presentation entitled "Crystal Meth: Voices of truth."

She - along with a panel of others including: Deborah Sullivan, whose
two sons fell prey to crystal meth; Dawn Dixon, addictions nurse with
the Richmond drug and alcohol action team, RADAT; Const. Jazz Gill of
the RCMP; and an RCMP toxicologist - is here to tell her story, her
experiences.

She hopes by doing so, someone listening might choose a less painful
path through adolescence than she did.

"If you haven't used (crystal meth) I would say it's not worth
trying," she says. "It's fun at first but then it sucks. It goes
downhill really fast."

Trite's own drug use began when she was just 12. Feeling isolated from
her peers with the sensation that she just "didn't fit in," she
started drinking and smoking pot.

Drugs, she says, helped fill that empty space inside her and made her
feel connected.

"When I did drugs, I wasn't different. I was the same as those other
people doing drugs."

A year later, at 13, she'd moved on to crack cocaine. Crystal meth
crossed her path at age 15, courtesy of a friend.

She quickly became an addict.

The drug is cheap. It's readily available and it made her feel on top
of the world - until, that is, the earth began to crumble under her
feet.

Like all chronic crystal meth users, Trites fell into a bitter cycle
of depression, paranoia and psychosis.

With her 14-year-old cousin in the audience, she describes a
frightening delusional episode she experienced with him while under
the power of the drug: "At one point I was examining his skin because
I thought he was sewn together. I probably scared the shit out of him.
"In a way, he's probably lucky to have seen this kind of thing."

Her cousin, Trites notes, doesn't touch drugs.

There is no silver-bullet cure for this particular addiction, Trites
knows this for a fact. Crystal meth users must instead learn new ways
of coping with the stresses of life under programs known as cognitive
behaviour therapy.

The road to recovery is long and fraught with failure. Only two per
cent of addicts ever really recover. Most slide through life in a
series of chronic relapses.

Some don't recover at all.

"I went to the funeral a month and a half ago for a good friend,"
Trites says. "So it can go either way."

Her own happy ending has her clean and sober for 11 months now. She
gives credit to a support group she regularly attends for her
continued success.

Last week she finished up the last of her court-ordered community
hours - a penalty for trying to steal a dirt bike to help support her
drug habit.

"Now that I'm clean, I can smile and laugh with my mom. I'm a family
member again," she says. "I don't want to be miserable anymore."