CRYSTAL METH: AN EPIDEMIC IN LANGLEY

Editor: I'm responding to the front page of The Times on March 26, 'Crystal
meth use on the rise.'

It's not on the rise, it's an epidemic. It was on the rise five years ago.
It's so sad that it's taken Langley this long to realize the problem, and
you're all fooling yourselves by thinking this is something new.

It's cheap, keeps you high for hours (even days), and it's not a drug of
choice, it's the drug of choice.

Recently, the largest meth lab busted wasn't just in the Lower Mainland, it
was in Langley - where you live and your kids go to school. If you think
your kids are not into it, or don't know people who are, then you need to
sit and have a talk with them even at age 13.

I am not a drug user, but my brother was. We grew up in an upper
middle-class family and spent our summers at the lake. We both had a good
childhood, but he and I made a few different choices - they proved to be
very important ones.

Once we all got over our denial and started looking for help, we found there
was none. Did you know that people could wait weeks before there is a bed
available in a treatment centre for someone asking for help?

When they ask for help they need it faster than ASAP, it could be only a
moment in time of clarity for them and they can't wait weeks for a bed. He
finally got help when the judge said "Treatment - or jail."

In between jail, he went through treatment on three separate occasions. He
wanted to be clean, but meth is a drug that does not let go, even if you are
a fighter and have full support from your family.

Now that there is such awareness, we need to realize that there is not
enough adequate help out there. We need more funding for facilities, more
beds and outstanding treatment with people that understand this drug.

They need to know that these kids are not molested or abused. They come from
good homes with supportive families. Above all, we need to get help as soon
as the addict wants it - not when it can become available.

This is not a drug for the people that live in another town. It's right here
in your house, in your family, in your life. Don't think it can't happen to
you.

My brother's name was David Williams. He died on Sept. 5, 2003 at the age of
24. He was clean after nine years of drug abuse.

Jennifer Wenman, Langley