Pubdate: Wed, 01 Jun 2005
Source: Cloverdale Reporter (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Cloverdale Reporter News
Contact:  http://www.cloverdalereporter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3407
Author: Staff Sgt. Dave Woods, District Commander District 4, Cloverdale 
Port Kells
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

IDENTITY AND MAIL THEFT FUEL CRYSTAL METHAMPHETAMINE ABUSE

Crystal Methamphetamine and mail theft are topics I have addressed in 
earlier articles and would like to touch on, again.

On the 3rd of May, I attended the Crystal Methamphetamine forum sponsored 
by The Province newspaper and held at the Bell Center. I went to the forum 
in the company of two ex-users who both had used the drug for a number of 
years.

The forum started with a fifteen minute video called "Death by JIB" (JIB is 
one of the street terms for meth). This is a hard-hitting video which has 
two meth. users, using street level language to describe the effect of the 
drug. Graphic details such as showing abscesses all over their bodies and 
mainlining (taking the drug with a needle in a vein in their arm) were 
provided.

After the Forum, I asked the two individuals who I had accompanied what 
they thought about the video. They both felt it effectively presented a 
message which needs to be delivered to youth on how additive the drug is 
and the resulting psychological effects users suffer. Both explained they 
have suffered bouts of psychosis which included paranoia, hallucinations, 
voices in their heads, and ultimately lead to suicide attempts, as a means 
to relieve their living hell.

Neither of the individuals had jobs during there heavy addition so I 
enquired how they obtained funds for their drug habit. Mail theft and 
identity theft were their main vehicle. They admitted targeting certain 
super mailboxes in Cloverdale neighbourhoods, stealing small amounts of 
mail from numerous boxes over a period of time which allowed the systematic 
creation of identity profiles on local residents. Fraudulent master keys 
which allow ready access to super boxes are prevalent in the criminal word 
and were readily available.

Once sufficient information had been obtained they would order a new credit 
card for the unsuspecting person. They monitored the victim's mailbox very 
closely until the new card arrived, then stole it.

Activation was a minor obstacle but not a major one. One would brazenly go 
to the victim's residence and provide some bogus reason why they would like 
to use the resident's telephone, i.e. to contact a friend because their 
vehicle had broken down or to locate a phone number in the neighbourhood 
whose address they had lost. They found it amusing and amazing how many 
Cloverdale residents would invite them into their home and let them use 
their phone unsupervised. At this time, they would of course capitalize on 
the opportunity and activate the card from the victim's own residential phone.

They only held onto the card for a short period of time, going on a 
spending spree, accumulating merchandise which they would sell for a 
fraction of the cost, or getting cash advances.

Result - meth. users continue their downward spiral and society pays in 
many ways.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom