WOMAN DISCOVERED FIRST HAND WHAT CRYSTAL METH CAN DO TO A FAMILY

It was the light bulbs that first caught her attention.

Light bulbs were disappearing at an astonishing rate from the cupboards and
closets around the house, without any explanation of where they were going.

"I couldn't figure out why we were going through light bulbs. They were
totally gone. I kept asking my son what happened and (he) kept saying 'Oh,
they just burnt out.'," says the mother of the 18-year-old Grande Prairie boy.

That was early in the fall of last year. In the months that followed the
mystery of the light bulbs was explained by the all-consuming addiction she
found her son was developing.

She found out months later the bulbs were disappearing because her son was
addicted to crystal meth. A powerful stimulant brewed in basement labs from
a combination of toxic, but over-the-counter, components, it's quickly
becoming one of the most popular street drugs in Grande Prairie.

She hopes telling her story, and sharing the warning signs she missed, will
help another family with a relative hooked on the deadly drug. Because of
the personal nature of the incident, and her son's recent rehabilitation,
she's asked that neither of their names be printed.

Junkies remove the metal portion of the light bulbs, she later discovered,
and the glass bulb used as an improvised pipe for heating the meth and
inhaling the vapours.

The second sign came in October, when her daughter's sweet-16 birthday
party was ruined as her brother arrived home with drug-addled friends in
tow. But his mother wasn't worried yet. After all, her son still seemed
completely normal. It was just some acquaintances that had drug problems.

"He was normal. He was going to work and sleeping regularly then," she
said. But starting around Christmas of 2001 that started to change.

As he began using crystal meth - also called speed, ice, or crank - more
frequently, the cycle of intense, energetic highs and dark, morose lows
began to show.

"You'd ask him something and he'd bite your face off," she said. "He wasn't
the son I raised."

Then in January his grandmother died and his girlfriend broke up their
one-year relationship. That's when he started his long descent to the
bottom in earnest.

He was deep in the dumps, she said, and to him the meth seemed the only
thing that could pull him back up again.

"Afterwards he said that none of your problems, none of your worries,
nothing bothers you. You just float by."

Soon he stopped sleeping. In the middle of the night his mother would find
him awake in his room. His appetite dwindled until he barely had interest
in food at all and he began to shed weight.

The realization her son was an addict came the night she found him crashed
on the couch with a friend. On his lap was a small plastic baggie filled
with crystalline flakes - crystal meth.

She'd never heard of meth before, but suspecting the dire nature of the
bag, she took it and hid it on her son. He called her at work the next day,
enraged beyond reason, swearing and yelling at her.

"He wanted it. That's all he was focused on."

Because of that incident he decided to move out, going to live with a
friend - actually his dealer. It lasted five days, during which he spent
nearly $1,200 of his savings on drugs.

The teen came home strung-out, miserable, and promising to go into detox.
He lasted 23 hours before he checked himself out.

The spiral continued. He pinned his mother against a kitchen counter when
she wouldn't give him money to buy more drugs. He pounded holes in his
bedroom door in a fit of rage. His parents called 911 when he threatened
them with knife.

On the way home from the hospital he attacked his father and ended up
spending the night in jail. Police wanted to lay assault charges, but his
parents refused to let their son go to prison.

He lied and manipulated his parents and family to try and get more money
for drugs.

"Our family was just about destroyed by this," says his mother. "It
affected so many people. He had to hit the very bottom before he realized
what he was doing.

"This has been the worst year of our life."

Her family isn't alone. According to counsellors at AADAC's Northern
Addictions Centre, use of methamphetamines has grown steadily in Grande
Prairie since first appearing a few years ago.

RCMP say the drug has quickly risen to equal the popularity of cocaine as
the hard drug of choice on city streets.

According to information from AADAC, crystal meth symptoms include
irritability, paranoia, aggression, sleep problems and uncontrolled rages.

It can also cause the heart to race, damage blood vessels and lead to a
heart attack or stroke.

The teenager in this story got out before experiencing such fatal
consequences. In April he spent seven painful days in detox. His mother
says that now he's back to work and back to the person he used to be.

"He feels guilt now, tremendous guilt," she says.

"But we couldn't force him.

"He had to want to get off it on his own."