DRUG USE REACHING EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS

Camrose social service agencies, educators and police are sounding the
warning bell in response to what they contend is a worsening drug problem.

"The use of illegal drugs in Camrose, especially Crystal Meth
(Methamphetamine) is starting to reach epidemic proportions," said Camrose
Police Service detective Lorne Blumhagen in a informational session for
community professionals and interested citizens at the Ribstone Child and
Family Services office October 17. "They are creating problems for the
individual who is using them and for the community as a whole."

Providing a bit of background, Blumhagen said the problem with Crystal
Meth, which appeared in the province at around the same time as the Hell's
Angels, seems to affect smaller communities like Camrose, Stettler, Killam
more so than the bigger ones like Edmonton.

"To me we don't have control of the problem yet -- it is getting worse not
better," he said. "It keeps coming up and coming up, and every day we hear
from parents about a new user. It is very obvious we have a Methamphetamine
problem in Camrose."

Usually available as white to brown coloured powders, Crystal Meth has also
been available recently as very large translucent crystals ('ice') of very
pure D-Methamphetamine. Taken orally, or by intravenous injection
(preferred by the chronic high dose abuser), the drug is a powerful
stimulant of the central nervous system, resulting in a rush that causes
the user to feel stronger, more confident, alert, sexually aroused,
restless, irritable, apprehensive, distrustful or more talkative. According
to an information sheet handed out to those attending the session, abusers
may engage in a Methamphetamine 'run,' where they smoke or inject
themselves with the drug several times a day over a period of three to five
days until their drug supply has run out or they are too exhausted to
continue. Initial positive effects are quickly replaced by the high dose
adverse affects and followed by a crash lasting from 18 to 24 hours.
Chronic use leads to tolerance to many of the effects of Methamphetamine
and other Amphetamine-like stimulants, while abrupt abstinence results in
extreme fatigue, prolonged disturbed sleep, hunger, irritability,
depression and psychotic symptoms. Psychological dependence is marked,
characterized by preoccupation with and compulsive need to continue taking
the drug.

"One of the most noticeable signs that someone is taking the drug is a
sudden weight loss," said Blumhagen in backing up a comment by Ribstone
Child and Family Services investigator Jim Hunter that one of the reasons
some girls take it is that it removes the desire for food and acts as a
thinning agent. He also noted that the drug can cause insomnia and can
cause users to reach a point where they become very violent and
retaliatory. Additional effects, according to AADAC area supervisor Mary
Wilton, are diminished cognitive capacity, long periods of eye dilation or
restriction, a swelling in the mouth which makes communication (and eating)
difficult, loss of concentration and coughing.

"A lot of the behavioural stuff is very consistent," said Blumhagen. "I
have talked to 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds who have experienced tremendous
negative effects from the drug and will have mental health problems the
rest of their lives."

Making control and enforcement difficult for police are the facts that all
the ingredients for Crystal Meth or Methamphetamine can be purchased at a
grocery store and produced over top of a stove, and that the finished
product can be concealed in the ends of something as small as a coloured
highlighter. Signs that someone has been manufacturing the drug, said
Blumhagen, include large purchases of any over the counter cold medication
containing amphedrine, as well as red phosphorous stains appearing on the
walls.

"The manufacturing can in itself be dangerous because the person can be
overcome by fumes or start a fire," said Blumhagen. "There are two cooking
methods, both of which are simplistic."

Along with being simple to make, Blumhagen said Crystal Meth is very
inexpensive to purchase, giving it extra appeal to those who wish to get
'high.'

"A half gram, which would give seven hits, can be purchase for around $45
or $50," he said. "That's cheap entertainment for 48 hours in their
(users') minds."

Other drugs appearing in Camrose, said Blumhagen, include marihuana, which
contains THC levels of up to 20 per cent compared to five per cent 20 years
ago, psilocybin (magic mushrooms or 'shrooms,' ecstacy, cocaine, crack,
ketamine, GHB (the date rape drug), and hash oil. He also noted there is a
problem with people illegally and without prescription getting their hands
on pharmaceutical drugs, such as valium, demerol, dilaudid and halcion.

"If there is a drug being manufactured legally, in some form you can say it
is being abused."

From a police perspective, Blumhagen said getting the dealers off the
streets is only a small portion of an effective strategy for reducing drugs
in the community.

"Everyone who has a stake in this has to know what everyone else is doing
and form a strategy on how to deal with the problem," he said. "We need to
discuss the basics of what we are seeing."

The view is one shared by Kerry LaBerge, who has been seconded away from
his position as principal of the PACE Outreach program to head Battle River
Regional Division's working committee on drugs. Adding to the comments
expressed at the session by others, LaBerge said it is important that the
community form a coordinated plan to educate citizens about the dangers of
the drug, which some believe causes more harm to the person's body than
cocaine and can cause a person to be 'high' for up to 48 hours.

"It is important that any organization working with youth has a
representative on the Drug Response Task Force struck by the Camrose Social
Planning Committee (SPAC)," said LaBerge. "We need to find a solution that
will assist everyone."

PAC member Ken Flater informed those who had gathered that the increased
flow of drugs into the community was something identified in the
recently-released social needs assessment.

"Dealing with the drug issue is our first priority," he said. "I see a
tremendous problem with drugs on a daily basis and the sooner we get after
it, the sooner we are going to start to find some answers or solutions."