Pubdate: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 Source: Powell River Peak (CN BC) Copyright: 2006 Peak Publishing Ltd. Contact: http://www.prpeak.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/734 Author: Luke Brocki MYTH OR METH? Experts, Advocates and Institutions Weigh in on a Drug That Is Perceived As a Problem in Much of the Province How does Powell River compare to other communities when it comes to drug use? Have dug through government documents and national statistics, the Peak hit the streets and talked with users, counsellors, educators, police and politicians-searching for insight into local drug use. Reports tell us it's highly addictive and cheaper and easier to get than cocaine or heroin. They tell us its relapse rates are higher than those of any other drug and its debilitating effects are permanent. But they also tell us use of the drug is on the rise, with death dealers peddling it to our kids and stealing their souls for brief moments of rapture. A search for "meth" on Google News, an automated news aggregator provided by Google Inc., yields more than 2,500 hits of headlines taken from recent stories in the mainstream media. Celebrity confessions and high-profile overdoses keep the headlines coming. Just recently, Stacey "Fergie" Ferguson, the female voice of Billboard chart-toppers Black Eyed Peas, told Time magazine of her past struggles to kick crystal methamphetamine. "It was the hardest boyfriend I ever had to break up with," she said. So is meth really sweeping the nation like a virus outbreak? Or is it the latest media-driven drug scare akin to the reefer madness of the 1930s and the crack panic of the 1980s? Coming from police officers, politicians, health officials and devastated parents, testimonies of personal experience with the horrors of meth have been a staple of Canadian readers' news diets for the better part of the 2000s. But statistical data documenting the drug's alleged rampant spread is in short supply and limited to surveys relying on self-reported drug use. According to the 2004 Canadian Addiction Survey, 6.4 per cent of Canadians said they had used amphetamines at least once in their lives (this included meth and an array of amphetamine-type stimulants). Less than one per cent of respondents said they used the drug in the previous 12 months. A similar survey of drug use by students in Toronto found that one per cent had ever used crystal meth in 2004, down from three per cent in 1993. "The evidence regarding methamphetamine use in British Columbia is confusing," admits a 2004 report by the ministry of health services. Titled "Crystal Meth and Other Amphetamines: An Integrated BC Strategy," the report compiles recent findings from across the province. A 2002 school-based survey in Squamish showed lifetime use at 1.4 per cent. The East Kootenays showed lifetime use at 3.3 per cent. A Lower Mainland survey conducted the same year in non-school settings showed a lifetime prevalence of 19 per cent, while a 2000 survey of street youth in Vancouver reported lifetime prevalence at 71 per cent. A 2003 Adolescent Health Survey by the McCreary Centre Society sampled more than 30,000 BC students and found that only four per cent had ever used amphetamines. This was down one per cent compared to the 1998 data of five per cent. "Though the differences in sample groups and survey tools do not allow for comparison between the results, it seems reasonable to conclude that methamphetamine use among the general youth population is stable or declining slightly," appendix one of the BC Strategy states. "However, use among certain high-risk populations is much higher and may be increasing significantly." This seems to fit with the BC Coroner's Service report that shows methamphetamine-related deaths have been increasing each year since 2000, peaking at 12 in 2003 before dropping to six in 2004. From the available data, methamphetamine addiction appears to be a big problem for a small proportion of the population. So it may not be an epidemic. Still, reported as inexpensive, easily accessible and responsible for addictions immune to treatment options, the drug is causing enough fear for the province to take action. "Crystal meth is a dirty, filthy drug. It ruins people's lives forever," said BC Premier Gordon Campbell last September at his annual address to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM). "It needs to be stopped before its deathly hold claims the lives of more people in our communities, usually young lives." BC released the first $2 million of a $7-million meth plan at the end of November 2005, aiming to address meth addiction through heightened public awareness of the dangers of the drug; a project worth $10,000 for communities who choose to participate. "The $10,000 grants will go towards programs that educate, raise awareness, build capacity for community response and encourage collaborative solutions," said Marvin Hunt, UBCM chair, in a news release soon after the funding was announced. That crystal meth is not on the radar in Powell River is no big secret. "We haven't had anything recent," said Corporal Dennis Blanch, the man in charge of the general investigation section and city drug enforcement unit at the Powell River RCMP, during an interview with the Peak. Blanch said the most recent meth-related drug bust was in 2003, when police took down a motor home allegedly headed to Texada Island to set up a meth lab. Myrna Leishman, chair of a city committee on substance abuse, which also houses representatives from the RCMP, Vancouver Coastal Health, Tla'amin (Sliammon) Community Health Services Society, Powell River Child, Youth and Family Services Society, Career Link, Courtwatch, School District 47 and the MLA office, agreed meth is not a local concern, but remained worried about its spread. "We have no crystal meth problem," she told the Peak. "But guaranteed it's going to come here same as everything else is going to come here." Thus, provincial money spurred city action and the wheels of preventative education were put into motion. The City of Powell River submitted a joint proposal for a meth response program in late May, alongside Tla'Amin Community Health Services and Powell River Child, Youth and Family Services. Some two weeks later, the Community Methamphetamine Response Funding Program was approved by UBCM and $20,000 was released from provincial coffers. Boosted by $5,000 in kind from the city, the project is one of 190 such undertakings across the province, aiming to educate residents of Powell River and Tla'Amin around the dangers of crystal meth through advertising, library resources, information booths and teaching parents to communicate with youth. "The response as been overwhelming and demonstrates the desire by British Columbians to take positive action against the use and production of the drug in our province," said Solicitor General John Les in a recent press release. But supporters of an evidence-based approach to the problem of addiction see things differently. "Sensational drug stories can have untold harm," said Joanne Simister, criminology instructor at Malaspina University-College. Simister was quick to add she does not, in any way, condone or encourage meth use, but feels that the current hype around crystal meth involves scare tactics, false reporting and personal opinions masquerading as fact, which can lead to the loss of credibility for the media and authorities. "Once kids find out we're not truthful about drugs, they'll never trust us about anything else," she said, referring to suggestions of the hopelessness of treatment, which were also questioned in a new report called "The Next Big Thing? Methamphetamine in the United States." Published by the Sentencing Project, a think-tank based in Washington, DC, the report illustrates the portrayal of methamphetamine as an epidemic that has been grossly overstated by the media. A copy of the report can be found online at www.sentencingproject.org. David Lewis, professor of community health and medicine at Brown University in Rhode Island, also shares this point and expressed his views in an open letter to the media in July 2005. Signed by 92 physicians, treatment specialists and researchers, the letter calls on the media to be responsible in its characterization of methamphetamine use, requesting, "media coverage of this issue be based on science, not presumption and prejudice." The letter can be found at www.jointogether.org. Dan Gardner, columnist for the Ottawa Citizen, agreed with the skeptics, adding concerns about the misallocation of resources. "Unnecessary preventative measures actually do inflict harm," he told the Peak in an email. "Whatever you spend on them is money you don't have for other things that actually could have done some good. So when police and other authorities spend money on fictional threats, it matters." History proved the "epidemic" predictions of crack cocaine in the late 1980s false and the Sentencing Project report states methamphetamine is likely to follow the same path. In regions actually ravaged by the drug, the eventual deterioration of people's lives is certain to serve as a beacon of warning for children reaching adolescence, writes Ryan King, author of the report. King adds it is everyone's responsibility to use prevention and educational methods that young people can trust; ones that are based in fact and portray consequences of drug use and effectiveness of treatment in a realistic fashion. WHY PEOPLE USE CRYSTAL METH: - - Chemical rush (equivalent to 600 times the normal levels of dopamine and nor epinephrine) - Increased alertness, motivation and brain activity (short-term) - Weight loss (may be an adverse effect, depending on circumstance) CONSEQUENCES OF USE: - - Amphetamine psychosis - Severe psychological addiction - Depression - - Inability to experience pleasure from normally pleasurable life events - Acne - Tooth decay - Erectile dysfunction - Compulsive fascination with useless repetitive tasks - False sensation of flesh crawling with bugs, accompanied by compulsive picking and infected sores - Immune system damage -Death With files from www.wikipedia.org and www.crystalrecovery.com - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine