FIGHTING METH'S ICY GRIP

The methamphetamine drug epidemic is already here, says Jody Meyer with the
New Westminster-based Last Door Recovery Society.

His proof? Nine out of 10 drug abusers that come for help at the 10-bed
youth recovery home are hooked on meth.

Meyer, a recovering addict and now the program manager for the New
Westminster home, will also tell you the so-called drug epidemic has been
around for decades. Just look at the last four years, he says. Right now
it's meth, but last year every kid that walked in the door was hooked on
heroin. And before that they were all strung out on crack cocaine.

Drugs change; the problems that cause drug abuse remain the same.

"Every time they say there's an epidemic I tell people the epidemic is the
addiction. The drugs, if it's crack or meth, are just what's on the street
at the time," says Meyer.

Although he paints meth, heroin, crack cocaine and other trendy hard drugs
with the same brush, he explains that meth is different from the rest. Both
Meyer and co-worker Jessica Cooksey are shocked at the condition kids
arrive in and what the drug does to them.

Cooksey, a former meth addict, is currently dealing with a 16-year-old girl
who can't shake the drug despite repeated attempts. It's not helping her
that everyone around her is hooked on the drug.

Meyer tells a story of a 12-year-old boy that was brought in after playing
video games for seven straight days without sleep while he was on a meth
binge. His father, who had to wrap him in duct tape to control him, brought
him in. The father had been beaten and bruised by his violent son.

"It's extremely tough on the families I deal with because they watch the
kids they love, that they've raised, get wired to a drug that makes them
possessed," says Meyer. "When you're in that addictive frame of mind you
want to do more meth and you'll do anything to get it, including stealing
from the family home.

"Usually when kids come in they're really defeated, they have no other
options but to deal with their drug problem," says Cooksey, an addictions
counselor. "If they had options they would have tried them. In most cases
they've completely destroyed their relationship with their family or their
family can't take another day with them living at home."

"Living with a meth addict is like living with a terrorist in your own
home," adds Meyer.

It's no wonder so many families give up on their addicted sons and
daughters. But a family is the most important support network that youth
has, says Cooksey. Especially if the only other network they have is
friends that do meth.

Both dispute claims that recovery from meth addictions are very low.
Cooksey, who quit as a high school senior, is proof of that.

"I know they're saying you're less likely to recover from crystal meth but
they said the same thing about heroin and they said the same thing about
cocaine," says Meyer. "If you're in the trenches and on the front line and
you're doing the same thing with the same people, of course you're going to
feel it's hopeless.

"People have to break the cycle. Meth and the street are a lifestyle."

"Addiction is a way of life," adds Cooksey.