Pubdate: Wed, 16 Nov 2005
Source: Midland Mirror (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 Midland Mirror
Contact:  http://www.simcoe.com/sc/midland/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2211
Author: Kim Goggins, The Mirror

TOUGH TO LET GO OF CRYSTAL METH

It's been four years since Jeff* has witnessed the shadow people.

Lingering only when he was wide-eyed and sleep-deprived on crystal 
meth, the figures drifted in and out of his peripheral vision, 
blurring the line between fantasy and reality.

He recalls with a shudder the time he chased what he thought was a 
friend through the streets of downtown Victoria, British Columbia, 
only to discover the figure was a figment of his imagination. Click Here!

"Your eyesight and everything starts to go. It's very scary. I don't 
know how I thought it was fun at the time," he shared with The Mirror.

"What happens when you start doing meth is you don't sleep and once 
you've been up for a few days, sleep deprivation kicks in on top of 
the high and you lose all rationality. Paranoid schizophrenia is a 
serious side effect of it. You get really edgy."

At first it was a party drug, a different high and much cheaper than 
crack cocaine. But when he started taking in a more potent amount by 
smoking the drug, his behaviour became even more erratic and his life 
started to fall apart.

"You know, when I think about it now, I pretty much get sick to my 
stomach," he says, noting that it wasn't until he lost his job, 
friends and was literally homeless in British Columbia that he 
decided to seek help.

"I get goose bumps just thinking how close I came. I've had friends 
who have died on it."

Although free from the clutches of meth for four years, the Simcoe 
County resident says he knows he could find some by making a couple 
of calls. "It's that available," he says.

Midland resident Cindy* laughs uneasily when she admits she is not 
shocked that crystal meth has crept its way into Midland.

"Is that bad?" asks the 20-year-old Georgian College student. "It's 
so horrible that it's not surprising anymore, isn't it?

"Basically, for the past few years it's been here and lately, right 
in your face."

If it's not right in her face at a party or local bar, she knows 
where she could get it if she used it. She says she doesn't.

"It's easy to get through bar scenes, through party scenes and stuff 
like that. You can just go up in the middle of the afternoon and be 
like, 'Hey, can I get some?' Because (Midland) is such a small town, 
right? It's not difficult to know (where to get it). Like, I know who 
they (dealers) are just from being young and being around."

Cindy's experience with crystal meth has been vicariously through a 
few friends, watching them snort, smoke, inject and ingest it, then 
experience the intense adrenaline rush that can last hours and 
eventually the cranky, sketchy, paranoid behaviour that ultimately 
accompanies the lowest low imaginable.

"They'll borrow money from friends and then they won't be able to pay 
it back and that leads to broken relationships," she says, adding 
that she's not aware of her friends resorting to crime to get it. 
"We're not a big town. Yeah, sure there's crime and whatnot, but 
people don't go around shooting people for it. Not here - not yet. 
But Barrie, they'll pawn things.

"It's big in Barrie. It's big everywhere right now."

While it has eluded police for the most part, the number of seizures 
is increasing. From January to June 2005, 2,700 grams of crystal 
meth, valued at $245,397, was seized in Ontario, almost twice the 
amount of the entire previous year, when 1,583 grams was seized.

Barrie is the only Simcoe County community that saw a seizure in 2004.

"It's very difficult to catch," admits Det. Sgt. Jamie Ciotka, unit 
commander of the Huronia Combined Forces Drug Unit.

"Dealers - very similar to crack (cocaine) dealers - don't hold large 
quantities at a time and they go through it very quickly. So it's 
difficult for police to find those small quantities in house raids. 
Most of the time, they're not even there. They're sold that quick."

Police have not seized any crystal meth in the Southern Georgian Bay 
area but they suspect it's here.

"It's almost inevitable," says Midland Police Chief Paul Hamelin. "If 
it's available somewhere, it's usually available in most places.

"Sometimes it just takes longer for it to get there. Hopefully, it 
doesn't come in epidemic proportions, but if you have people who are 
users and they find a new drug that is either cheaper or provides a 
different effect, then they'll try it."

Staying ahead of the problem is the key, says Hamelin. But, he says, 
police can't do it alone. They need the public's help.

"It's a community fight; it's never been a police fight. Our job is 
to try to prevent crime and react to crime, but substance abuse has 
always been a community issue. It's in our families, it's in our 
schools, and it's something that society has to come to grips with," 
said Hamelin.

"It's similar to most issues we (as police) deal with. If you really 
get to the root cause, it's based in our social values, our social 
services, our support for other people that are dealing with real 
challenges in their life."

* Name has been changed.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman