Pubdate: Thu, 10 Nov 2005
Source: Outlook, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Outlook
Contact:  http://www.northshoreoutlook.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1433
Author: Justin Beddall
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

DESCENT INTO DRUG ADDICTION

When her 14-year-old daughter was finally locked up inside the Burnaby
Youth Custody Centre, Debbie, a West Vancouver mother of three, slept
soundly.

"It's a relief for me; she's locked up. It was the first time I could
sleep for months," recalled Debbie, who asked that her last name not
be used for the story. "I knew where she was. I knew she was safe. I
didn't need to bar the windows and hide things of value.

While there seems to be some debate over the extent of crystal meth
abuse amongst North Shore teenagers, Debbie's harrowing story about
the death grip the drug had on her daughter adds some sober
perspective. The drug, often described as being more addictive and
deadlier than crack cocaine, is on the North Shore - and it's cheap
and plentiful.

"I want people to know that this happens to children in our own
neighbourhoods," she said. "Crystal meth is very different than other
drugs - the damage and the impact is so swift. The drug dealers know
how addictive meth is.

Debbie's daughter, whom we'll call Julia, ran into some difficulties
with some older kids when she started Grade 8 at a high school in West
Vancouver. She was forced to transfer to North Vancouver's Carson
Graham secondary. There, she fell in with an older crowd who were
using drugs.

She admitted to her mother that she had tried ecstasy with her
schoolmates, but Debbie figures it must have been cut with crystal
meth, which is becoming all-to-common these days, according to RCMP
drug experts.

"I think she was exposed and didn't even know it. When I look back on
her behavior she probably was doing drugs," her mother said last week.

Her daughter's nosedive into drug addiction was speedy. Soon, in the
throws of addiction, she became violent and abusive and was eventually
sent to live in a Ministry of Children and Family Development group
home. "It shattered our whole family," said Debbie, who had been going
through a troubling divorce.

It was there that Julia, once a beautiful, dark-haired girl and
competitive gymnast, met another girl who she travelled downtown with
to score a bag of crystal meth, which is also referred to as "ice" or
"glass.

Soon, she was hooked on the drug, which is said to be such a
blissed-out high that some first-time users become addicts.

In a letter she recently wrote her mom from lock-up in Burnaby, Julia
talked openly about using meth.

"I liked it more than anything before. I felt a connection with this
substance.

"Then I started using more, lying more, stealing more and sacrificing
everything I had and meant to me," she said in a handwritten letter.

Her first stint in Burnaby lasted two weeks. But she wasn't home for
more than 40 minutes before she left the house to go score from one of
her drug dealers.

"If we don't have the systems in place the chances of recovery and
success are very low. Drug addiction is an illness and has to be
treated as such," said Debbie.

Her daughter's cycle of addiction was typically a five-day binge
followed by a crash - and return to her mother's care.

Her physical appearance changed too. She would get very thin because
while on the drug she would get very little sleep. Her face was also
covered in sores. Her mother said that people on meth hallucinate that
crystals are coming out of their skin and pick at them continually
and, feeling no pain, won't stop until they have gaping wounds.

"It's been horrific. The first time I thought love was enough," Debbie
explained in between sips of coffee. "Maybe this time will be the last
time. But each time she binged the grip of the drug became even tighter.

It wasn't until the beleaguered mother consulted with an
anthroposophical doctor that Debbie was forced to realize she had been
enabling her daughter by propping her back up every time she returned
home from another crystal meth binge.

So, the next time her daughter returned home from a binge with an
outstanding warrant out for her arrest, Debbie refused to let her
"sleep it off" before she went to jail.

She picked up the phone and called the police.

It was counterintuitive, especially for a mother, but she knew she had
to change her own enabling patterns in order to save her daughter from
the drug's death grip.

This wasn't her daughter: She stole things - cheques, cash whatever
she could get her hands on - to fuel her habit. She was hanging around
drug pushers and pimps.

Debbie said seeing her daughter on drugs was like being in a room with
a stranger.

"It's a lot like possession. You're not looking at your child your
looking at a drug addict. It doesn't matter if you had a close
relationship before. I think it's really important the message gets
across to kids how addictive this drug is. There are no safe drugs on
the streets anymore," she pleaded.

Debbie is encouraged by the recent formation of a North Shore task
force on crystal meth, which met yesterday [Wednesday] to release the
details of its 90-day crystal meth awareness campaign, which is set to
kick off on Jan. 9, 2006.

There are more than 50 individuals on the task force, including
Debbie, ranging from municipal and community groups to concerned
parents and youth.

"I think there has to be public awareness that addiction is an illness
and needs to be treated as such," said Debbie, who believes that the
youth justice system needs to have more latitude to deal with young
offenders.

"These kids are not old enough to make these kinds of decisions." She
added that the North Shore needs detox and treatment beds, especially
for drug-addicted teens.

North Vancouver RCMP Sgt. Sheryl Armstrong, a member of the
detachment's general investigation section, is heading up the
enforcement side of North Vancouver's new task force on crystal meth.

"It's definitely here," she said, noting that because the drug is so
cheap there hasn't been a wave of crime with it.

Debbie, meanwhile, is allowed to visit with her daughter for one hour
each week inside a room decorated with plastic chairs and vending
machines at the Burnaby youth detention facility.

She said her daughter is improving.

Once Julia finishes her one-month sentence, she will enter a
court-ordered drug treatment facility starting Nov. 21.
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