TOXIC DRUG CAUSES LASTING DAMAGE TO BRAIN

VANCOUVER -- The first time Caitlin used crystal methamphetamine, she
marvelled at how alert -- even brave -- she grew, especially when night
fell. At 13, she was fending for herself on the streets of a tough suburban
Vancouver neighbourhood. The drug chased off hunger too and made the damp
West Coast chill endurable.

It lost its cachet when she began to hallucinate. Soon, Caitlin was
convinced every man she saw was carrying a gun. She believed that laser
weapons were aimed at her heart. She once carved a hole in her thumb with
tweezers trying to extract an imaginary glass sliver.

Today, at 14, she's back at home in her mother's house in suburban Surrey,
B.C., no longer using crystal methamphetamine but still gripped by the
perplexing paranoia it induces. She's afraid to leave the house and sleeps
in her mother's bedroom on the floor. At night, she hears whispering in the
hall.

"I'm so scared all the time," Caitlin said, her eyes growing wide with
alarm as she gripped a lollipop and recounted her life on the street.
Caitlin is not her real name. She agreed to speak about her drug
experiences on condition she remain anonymous.

Caitlin used other drugs, including crack and heroin, but doctors say her
experience with crystal methamphetamine, or meth as it's colloquially
known, is eerily similar to other users.

The energy it first fuels later turns to aggression, paranoia and even
psychosis. Worse, doctors say, damage could be permanent as they find
increasing evidence that the drug alters the structure of the brain.

In short, it makes people crazy.

The longer people use the drug -- made entirely from synthetic and highly
toxic ingredients, including ammonia, paint thinner, battery acid and even
Drano -- the worse the damage. Some psychiatrists say meth can bring on
schizophrenia, one of the most crippling of all mental illnesses.

And it is sweeping British Columbia's Lower Mainland, causing alarm -- even
panic -- among police, youth workers and health authorities, who estimate
that up to 90 per cent of street kids have used the drug. They're worried
that a whole sector of young people face a lifetime of mental problems.

And although meth is still largely a West Coast phenomenon, it has already
migrated eastward. In Edmonton, police blamed its use for a spike in
property crimes last year.

"I plead with them," said Bill MacEwan, a psychiatrist who has treated meth
users who still suffer psychotic symptoms. "I give them horror stories. I
say: 'If you're going to use drugs, don't use this. It can damage you
forever. It is highly toxic. It can ruin your life.' "

Youth workers say the drug has caused mayhem at Vancouver shelters when
out-of-control users arrive in a psychotic state. For the first time, youth
counsellors are afraid of the people they're trying to help.

"Their behaviour is so strange," said Steve Smith, program director of a
downtown youth drop-in centre. "They'll tell you this person was shot 17
times and they really believe it. They're not telling stories; they're
trying to confide in you. It's hard to have a conversation with these people."

Sandy Cooke, executive director of Vancouver's downtown Covenant House,
said staff have turned young people away from the overnight shelter.
Counsellors say it's hard to differentiate between the genuinely mentally
ill and those high on meth.

"It's really an ugly challenge," Mr. Cooke added. "I've seen the heroin
come in, I've seen the crack cocaine come in. This is the worst I've seen
in my time."

Meth arrived on the West Coast about two years ago, landing with a splash
in Vancouver's club scene. Like ecstasy, it gives users energy and stamina
for all-night dance raves.

But meth delivers more bang. Where ecstasy's effects will wear off before
dawn, meth will last well into the next day.

And while cocaine is still the most widely used drug in Vancouver, police
say meth use is climbing. A 2002 study conducted in the area showed 19 per
cent of young people aged 12 to 24 had tried it.

Police also say college students use the drug to stay awake to study, and
some young women use it for weight control.

While meth has made inroads into the middle class, the population it has
gripped the most tightly is street kids. Sadly, it's as if the drug was
tailor-made to meet the needs of those living hand-to-mouth.

In addition to dulling hunger and fatigue, it's incredibly cheap. A "point"
of meth, meaning one-tenth of a gram, costs $10 and lasts up to 12 hours,
sometimes longer. By comparison, a rock of crack cocaine costs the same but
wears off in 20 minutes.

"You can panhandle for a few hours to get what you need," said Detective
Constable Colleen Yee of the Vancouver police drug unit.

Meth is easy to buy and easy to make. Anyone with a stove can cook up a
batch. Recipes can be can be found on the Internet, and the main
ingredients -- ephedrine, red phosphorous and iodine -- can be purchased at
a drug or hardware store, which raises a separate set of environmental
concerns.

In Vancouver, labs have sprung up in residential neighbourhoods across the
city. Compared to marijuana grow operations, where the main health hazard
is mouldy walls, these labs are highly toxic, flammable and pose a health
threat to neighbours.

Last Wednesday, firefighters were called to a blaze on a quiet east-side
street. When the occupant fled the house, firefighters, suspecting a meth
lab, called the drug unit. Police found four vats of the drug bubbling on a
counter, with toxic smoke billowing into the night air.

In its first North American incarnation, meth, or speed as it was then
called, was fed to Allied pilots during the Second World War to help them
stay awake on long flights. Some doctors prescribed the stimulant to treat
bronchitis, depression and obesity.

That form of methamphetamine, taken as a tablet, was less potent than the
current crystallized version. But its main ingredient then, as now, was
ephedrine, which is found in cold medications. Taken in high doses,
ephedrine provides bursts of energy and euphoria.

In the 1960s, meth use flourished again as a stimulant and labs sprouted in
San Francisco. Then, in the 1980s, a crystallized, smokable -- and more
powerful -- brand of meth hit the street. Also known as crank, jib, ice and
shards, it delivered an instant, euphoric rush.

In the 1990s, it inched up the West Coast and fanned into the U.S. Midwest.
Worldwide, it's the second most commonly used illicit drug after marijuana,
with more than 35 million users.

So far, Canada's experience with meth differs sharply from that of the
United States, where it's largely a rural or small-town phenomenon, with
the nickname "hillbilly heroin".

One of the most ominous aspects of the meth craze is its dismal treatment
statistics. It's highly addictive and the relapse rate -- at 92 per cent --
is higher than that of cocaine.

For some, addiction occurs the first time they try it. "I loved it,"
Caitlin said, recounting her first experience with meth. "I couldn't
believe how fast I could talk."

It was her boyfriend who persuaded her to try the drug, which they melted
with a lighter in a broken light bulb, inhaling its smoke.

Soon, she was stealing from her mother's wallet, even pawning her
nine-year-old sister's portable CD player to pay for more meth. "I broke
into her room with a knife and pawned it."

Later, she turned to prostitution to pay for her habit. She stopped using
last fall after an overdose sent her to hospital, but she admitted she used
the drug again just before Christmas.

Typically, users embark on days-long, sleepless binges. Afterward, with the
brain's dopamine depleted, they fall into a severe depression, which,
combined with the exhaustion, can make some suicidal.

Then there are the users who quit, but continue to experience mind-altering
symptoms.

Dr. MacEwan, who is the director of the schizophrenia program at the
University of British Columbia, has patients barely into their 20s who take
anti-psychotic drugs.

And researchers are finding that former meth users can't think like they
used to. For some, their memory is permanently impaired; for others, the
ability to think abstractly has vanished.

Caitlin's future is uncertain. She hasn't attended school since Grade 7 and
she remains afraid of the kind of day-to-day activities other teens don't
think twice about.

Caitlin was supposed to start school again last Wednesday, but "chickened
out," she said. She's too far behind, but she said she'll take courses by
computer and try school again in the fall.

She thinks she's beaten her meth addiction because her last experience
frightened her badly. Asked what she'd tell other kids tempted to try it,
she replied: "Don't . It's dirty and it will fuck you up."