LOVE AFFAIR WITH METHAMPHETAMINE ENDED IN DISASTER

Michael Quick says he fell in love with the highly addictive drug
methamphetamine the first time he smoked it.

"I felt like I was on top of the world. I didn't have a care," said
the Red Deer man in an interview from the Grande Cache
minimum-security prison.

The nine-month affair took over his life. Quick spent days and nights
devising criminal schemes to pay for his next high.

Methamphetamine, a stimulant also known as speed and crystal meth,
kept him awake for days on end and decreased his appetite.

He lost 32 kg (70 pounds); his skin turned pale and his eyes appeared
to sink into his skull.

"My record was 22 days in a row with no sleep," said the 29-year-old
son of a Free Methodist church minister.

"I looked like hell. I was 110 pounds (50 kg), down from the usual 180
pounds (82 kg)."

But Quick said he remained hooked because he felt clear-headed,
energetic and carefree. His worries and feelings of guilt and regret
disappeared. "You're not afraid of anything. You don't care. The drug
gets rid of your caring senses."

Quick believes the addiction combined with his wakefulness and
clear-headed feelings led him to the world of mail fraud.

Quick, a former worker at a hog farm near Rimbey, previously had
problems with alcoholism and had two impaired driving charges. He said
he didn't commit a serious crime until smoking methamphetamine
following a painful breakup with his wife.

He quit college upgrading courses in January 2002 because his drug use
was interfering. His addiction grew to a $2,000-per-month habit, a
discounted rate for buying in bulk.

Thieves in a fraud ring heard he needed cash. The ring stole as much
as $70,000 from at least 100 people in Red Deer. Quick said he
received about $35,000 in the six months he took part.

Quick was assigned a "mail route" and would steal cheques, credit
cards and even birthday cash from mail boxes.

He doctored cheques by scratching out the person's name and address,
printing a new name and address on a laser printer, and re-colouring
the background using a pencil crayon.

He and his fellow thieves compiled profiles of people, using
information such as their social insurance number and birthday from
mailed documents such as T-4 statements. That allowed them to activate
credit cards. If the credit card company required the customer to
phone from a home phone, the thieves would set up a second line in the
victim's home and forward it to their cellphone.

Police nabbed Quick after an acquaintance reported him. In March 2003,
he was sentenced to two years behind bars.

Today, he says he feels deep remorse. He said he needed counselling to
help cope with his negative feelings.

"Once you are sober, your caring senses come back," said Quick, who
laments the theft of birthday cash mailed by grandparents to their
grandchildren and the discarding of mail containing pictures of babies
and newlyweds.

"I don't know how to repay people. I can help clean up halls and
shovel sidewalks at seniors apartments where I stole mail," he said as
an offer.

Unlike some other drugs like heroin, methamphetamine doesn't produce
physical withdrawal symptoms once use is stopped. But it does produce
psychological effects such as depression, anxiety, fatigue, paranoia,
aggression and intense craving for the drug.

In jail, Quick said he attends church four times a week and works as
the cleaner of his unit. Still, his addiction calls him back.

"I still dream about it."

Quick was released on parole in September but within a week, family
pressures drove him back to his old love, methamphetamine.

Now back in jail, he asked the prison to transfer him to a treatment
centre in Edmonton for 28 days. He will be released from jail next
Sept. 25.

"I think I had a death wish when I was taking methamphetamine, and
when I was put in jail I was rescued."