METH TIDE RISES

Back in 2001, Det. Darcy Strang hardly ever heard about methamphetamine. He
was too busy trying to bust crack dealers.

Nowadays, he and the rest of the Edmonton Police Service drug squad are
struggling just to keep up with a rising tide of meth that's overtaking the
city.

At the rate things are going, Strang's convinced that very soon meth will
surpass crack cocaine as the predominant street drug in Edmonton and the
surrounding area.

Ironically, he can't back up this assumption with any hard data - the meth
epidemic is spreading so rapidly that the EPS is still trying to adjust its
statistics-gathering methods to reflect the new reality. At this stage it's
just an educated guess, but it's shared by cops, street workers, addictions
counsellors and public health professionals.

"It's all happening so fast. Two years ago, buying a gram of meth on the
street was rare," Strang said. "Now it's everywhere."

Methamphetamine, the synthetic, more potent form of amphetamine, was first
developed in 1919. It became commonly available in the 1940s as a
prescription drug to treat a range of conditions, from attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to narcolepsy. It's been a popular street
drug in parts of the U.S. since the 1970s, when biker gangs in California
and the Pacific Northwest realized how lucrative it could be.

Police don't know why meth has taken so long to reach Edmonton. All they
can say with certainty is that it's here now and its grip is tightening. In
the past year they have raided two homes in the city that contained "super
labs," meth labs capable of producing more than four kilograms per day, all
for the local market. But far more common, Strang said, are smaller,
so-called "mom and pop" labs, which are mobile and frequently move around
the city, making them much harder for police to find.

There are two reasons why meth is so popular. First, it's cheap and easy to
produce. Unlike cocaine, which is made in the jungles of South America and
smuggled north through numerous supply chains, meth is manufactured right
here out of materials readily available in any pharmacy and hardware store.
A "point" of meth, one-tenth of a gram and enough for someone to get high
on, can be had in Edmonton for as little as $10.

That's about a quarter of the price of crack. The second, and more
important, reason for meth's popularity is that it's one of the most
seductive narcotics available. When smoked or injected, the initial rush is
described by addicts as one of the most intensely pleasurable experiences
imaginable. However it's taken - smoked, injected, snorted or swallowed -
the high can last more than six hours, compared with 20 minutes or so with
crack.

Of course, as with most drugs, each time you use it, the high gets a little
shorter and less intense. Meth addicts, in a desperate attempt to recapture
that initial euphoria, will start "cranking," that is, continually using in
order to stay high. Because it's a stimulant, they can go days without
sleeping or eating. Soon paranoia, delusions and violent behaviour set in.

Perhaps more than any other narcotic, meth is a deadly threat not only to
the addicts who use it, but to the rest of society as well. Meth labs are
so dangerous that they put entire neighbourhoods at risk.

Manufacturing it involves applying heat to explosive chemicals, and one of
the byproducts of the process is phosphene gas, a chemical so poisonous it
can be fatal if inhaled, swallowed or even absorbed through the skin.

Police say Edmontonians are lucky that so far there hasn't been an
explosion or a toxic gas leak in a residential area.

A meth lab's environment is so volatile that dismantling it requires very
special training. Strang and his colleagues were sent to DEA headquarters
in Quantico, Virginia, to learn how to take apart a lab without killing
themselves or anyone in the vicinity.

"We wear protective suits. Everything has to be done extremely slowly and
very, very carefully," Strang explained. "Just moving something can start a
chain reaction that could be deadly."

The EPS is working with firefighters, paramedics, public health staff and
other front-line workers, teaching them how to recognize meth labs and what
to do when they come across them.

The police are also lobbying hard for legislative change to make it easier
to charge meth makers. Presently, all the ingredients are perfectly legal
and can be obtained anywhere in the city. Strang said on several occasions
police have stopped drivers with a trunk load of pseudoephedrine (an
over-the-counter cold remedy) and iodine.

"There's only one reason someone would have large quantities of this
stuff," Strang said. "But right now we can't charge them."

Meanwhile, the tide keeps rising.