Police, former addicts and concerned family members told a recent forum on crystal meth that the drug is far more damaging than many people and experts believe.
"It is absolutely evil," said Cst. Susan Boyes, of the North Cowichan/ Duncan RCMP, told the crowd at Chemainus Secondary School Nov. 8 in the first of two forums organized by Pierre Morais on behalf of North Cowichan and Duncan councils.
Boyes, with 20 years of front-line experience as a cop on the street, said she thought she had seen it all. People addicted to other drugs have died in her arms.
"But, as bad as that sounds, when crystal meth appeared on the streets, it blew me away. Nothing compares to this drug."
To feed their habit, users take to everything from breaking into cars to prostitution, she said, adding that crystal meth and violence seem to go hand in hand.
But that's not all the RCMP see.
"The police don't always deal with people that are high on the drug. We also see the ones who know they aren't going anywhere, and they're at the ledge of the building or they're sitting there with maybe a knife and they want to kill themselves. They're straight at that moment but they are just in such a black hole that they think they are nowhere. We deal with those people, too. That can be so sad when they say to you, 'I have nothing left, nowhere to go. I'm going to kill myself.' It's something we're going through more and more."
Police were surprised when meth hit the Cowichan Valley hard but they are pleased there are people involved in trying to get the word out about how bad it is, she said. "I think it's great that there are so many community representatives here. We'll all put up a good fight."
Cole Rickard, a Valley teenager, said he quit school this year to help a friend who was hooked on meth.
He felt he had to do something because he himself had become increasingly desperate watching people he knew fall to the drug. He listed 10 people who are either addicted or dead.
A memorable incident cemented his own rejection of the drug. "My friend thought I had stolen some of his meth and used it, although he knows I would never use drugs," he said.
The friend didn't want him to become an addict, too. "They made me sit and watch a person stick a full needle of crystal meth into their arm, to try to teach me a lesson, to scare me straight. It certainly worked."
He came to the meeting to ask the community to take a more active role against crystal meth.
"I want to shine a light on the effect crystal meth is having on our community and to help people," Rickard said. "I can't fight this problem alone. I need help, not for my sake but for my friends' sakes."
Marilyn Erickson, of Crystal Meth Victoria, is a recovered cocaine addict but says crystal meth is a far, far worse a drug.
"There's been nothing produced that causes such euphoria and anything that makes you that high, means that, when you withdraw it, it's way down there. Our coroners' stats are showing that," she said.
Crystal meth overdoses are doubling every year in B.C. and business is booming, she said. "The building I live in, right down town in Victoria has 14 meth dealers. It's only a four-year-old building and they just appeared overnight three years ago."
She urged parents and friends to keep an eye on young people, watching for signs of addiction to the deadly drug.
"A meth addict is so screwed up they don't know they are screwed up. They don't think that they're doing Drano, or rat poison."
