DEADLY DRUG MAKING COMEBACK

Speed Kills. It was the popular slogan for a drug that left a trail of
destruction in the late 1960s and police fear its comeback will find a
new crop of victims. It appears that's already happening on Nanaimo
streets.

RCMP recently answered a call from a woman who jumped from a moving
vehicle, convinced she was being kidnapped.

They realized it was a methamphetamine-fueled hallucination when she
said the kidnappers were in every passing vehicle.

"When you attend, you don't know," said Const. Shawna Knecht of the
Nanaimo RCMP.

"They could say they were beaten up by three guys. They may be
distraught, their clothes are torn . We've taken several people to
hospital - it's horrible."

Another time an officer chased a man into a drug house, only to have a
knife pulled on him. A search found methamphetamine paraphernalia on
the man.

The drug has become more popular over the last year, Knecht told
nearly 200 people Wednesday at a conference at Beban Park.

Methamphetamine turbo-charges a user's nervous system, replacing
tiredness with a surge of energy and feelings of invincibility.

That spawns paranoia after users binge for several days to maintain
the euphoric meth high.

Street users know it variously as crystal meth, ice, glass and crank,
and at $10 to $20 a bag, it's growing popular.

"They're using crystal meth because it's cheaper than cocaine - much
cheaper and the high lasts longer," said Clearview Centre assistant
director Shelley Garside.

Clearview is where addicts go to clean up, and there they've seen a
30-per-cent rise in meth addiction over the past year.

A similar trend happened in Seattle five years ago, and it's worrisome
because methamphetamine is so destructive, addictive and easy to
manufacture in Canada, where backyard chemists can easily get the raw
materials to make it.

Police recently pulled over a van in Nanaimo loaded with a mobile meth
lab.

Today meth is showing up in all Nanaimo high schools, where youth are
blissfully unaware of its bad reputation.

That worries drug treatment counsellors, who know a meth habit takes
longer to break than the seven-day Clearview program.

Education can be a powerful preventative tool, said Clearview director
Katherine Gow.

"The best thing you can do is talk to your kids and build their
self-esteem so they feel worthy," Gow said.

"Give them activities they enjoy - more for them to do than sit in
front of the TV and play on the computer."