Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jun 2005
Source: Hanover Post, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005, Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.thepost.on.ca
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2612
Author: Lori Gillespie
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Series: Other articles in this series may be found at
http://www.mapinc.org/source/Hanover+Post

'METH MAKES YOU FEEL GREAT FOR THE FIRST WHILE'

Part Four

HANOVER -- The first time A.J. Scott did crystal meth was New Year's Eve,
when he was in Grade 12. He was already drunk and everyone else at the party
was doing it too.

Scott turned 23 on April 30. The next day, he quit doing drugs. Since then,
he has been trying to help his friends who are hooked on methamphetamines,
so far with no results. Continuing that effort, he has asked to speak at a
public information meeting planned for Mon., June 27 to tell people in the
community about his experiences.

Scott called and enlisted for the Canadian Armed Forces this week. He hopes
to go in the fall. "I need to get out of Hanover," he says. It's difficult
for him to live in Hanover, seeing his friends who are still doing drugs.

Scott grew up in Walkerton. He went to Walkerton Public School and Walkerton
District Secondary School. He hasn't graduated from high school. He still
needs two credits, he says. He was a good student growing up and was always
interested in the military.

The summer before Grade 9, Scott tried drugs for the first time, with his
friends.

They smoked marijuana (weed) and took mushrooms.

It continued when he entered high school. "Where didn't I do it?" he says.
"I did it at school, in the park, at home, walking down the street . . ."

He says he started doing drugs to be cool, to impress his friends, and
because it made him feel good. It made him happy and worry-free.

Around this time, his parents divorced, and he continued living with his
mother in Walkerton.

"When I went to class, I got good marks," he says "But I didn't go much in
the first couple years of high school."

In Grade 11, his father told him he needed to straighten up and take school
seriously. "I started to smarten up, I thought it was time to straighten
up," Scott says. "I didn't stop doing drugs, but I went to school."

He smoked weed every day, unless he couldn't get it. He was able to support
his habit with a job at a Walkerton restaurant. He also used his lunch
money, buying drugs instead of food for lunch.

Where did he get the drugs? "I bought marijuana from my friends at school
and around town," he says.

"A lot of people sell it at school because they can make good money."

In Grade 12, he moved on to cocaine and crystal meth. "After the first time
(doing meth) I didn't feel the buzz . . . I didn't think it was worth the
gram," he says. A gram of crystal meth costs about $50. A gram can keep a
person high anywhere from one night to two days.

Around this time, Scott moved to Hanover to live with his father, and didn't
see his friends as often. He started only doing meth on weekends.

Then, after dropping out of school, he got his own apartment. "There was
nobody to worry about, I could do what I wanted," he says. He started doing
more drugs -- meth, ecstasy, cocaine, acid (although less available in this
area, he says), weed, mushrooms. "Whatever I could get."

But Scott says he wasn't hooked. "I don't think I was hooked on meth. I only
did it on weekends, it wasn't an everyday thing for me."

He admits that there was a "slight addiction" after the first time he used
meth -- an urge to do more.

The longest he binged was four days, but he knows people who have binged for
a week or more.

"With meth, at the start you feel great, confident, talkative, and it's good
to do while you're drinking because it helps you stay up longer and party
longer," he says. "It makes you feel great for the first while . . . it's
not a head buzz like marijuana . . . it's hard to describe, you just feel
good all over."

To support the habit he started committing break and enters and carhopping
(breaking into cars at night and stealing change). He was after money or
items worth money, and sold the stolen items to anyone who'd buy it.

He railed meth -- putting the drug on the glass of a broken light bulb and
burning it, breathing in the fumes. Others he knows, although he says he
didn't do it himself, parachuted -- wrapping the drug in tissue and
swallowing it.

"Apparently it gives you the best high, but I never did it."

Eventually Scott realized he was in a downward spiral.

"I realized my friends were in trouble before I realized it about myself,"
Scott says. "One friend lost his job and has to live with his mom. He's
barely 100 pounds, really skinny. I think he knows he has a problem but he
doesn't do anything about it."

Another friend, he says, tried to kill his parents, and is now in jail.

Yet another friend has been in and out of mental institutions since high
school, he says.

"It's all fun and games until the withdrawal symptoms kick in," Scott says.
He says withdrawal can start two to five hours after taking meth. When
withdrawal starts, you either take more ("if you can get it") or you crash.

"Crashing is horrible -- it's the most horrible feeling I've ever
experienced," he describes. "You are paranoid, there are thoughts in your
head about why you took drugs, you can't sleep . . . you feel like shit
because you haven't eaten, and you're itchy. You feel sick, and you might
vomit if you've been drinking; otherwise, you dry heave."

Scott's birthday party this year started on a Friday night. They partied
through the night, doing meth, smoking weed and drinking. They continued
partying right through Saturday, and finally Scott went home on Sunday
morning at about 1 am.

He was leaning over the toilet in his apartment, dry heaving. "I felt like I
was going to die, I was choking," he says. "And for the first time, I felt
like I didn't want to die. I heard a voice that said, `Why are you doing
this?' And I realized, this is not who I am. I'd been pretending to be
somebody I'm not. I did it because everyone else was doing it.

"After that, I was still high, but I felt better."

He went to bed, and has had no drugs or alcohol since then. The next day he
called his mom and told her what had been going on, and she gave him a book
called "Purpose Driven Life," about finding a real purpose in life.

Although he was finally cleaning up, he was sad, he says, because he knew he
had to leave all of his friends. His girlfriend, also 23, weighs "less than
100 pounds." The childhood sweethearts have known each other since they were
six years old. When Scott told her she had to choose, him or the drugs, she
chose the drugs.

They broke up three weeks ago.

Scott made attempts at trying to help his friends quit drugs, but to no
avail.

Scott is surprising himself. "I smoked weed for 11 years, and I quit in one
day," he says, adding that he hasn't craved any drugs since quitting. "It's
a lot of wasted time, I could have been using that time becoming who I want
to be."

He has received a lot of support from both his parents, and has been
attending the Missionary Church with his mother on Sundays. Scott plans to
get his high school diploma while in the army. He wants to become a police
officer, and he also wants to be a drug counsellor.

Nobody asked Scott to speak at Monday's meeting. He approached Hanover
Police Chief Tracy David and asked if he could help.

Who should attend the meeting? "Anyone with children they want to protect,"
he says. He wants parents and other community members to learn the signs and
symptoms of meth abusers, so that they can intervene sooner.

He hasn't given up on his friends. In fact, he says, he's speaking out in
order to help them.

"In the end it's your decision," he says, adding, "Ever since I stopped
doing drugs, my life has kept getting better and better."
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MAP posted-by: Josh