Morgana Glass thought she had big problems at age 15. When she got hooked on crystal meth, those problems got a lot bigger.

The former army cadet and soccer player was sitting on the floor of some guy's basement one night when she realized life had become as bad as it could get.

"I didn't live anywhere, I didn't own anything and I was just released from the cop shop," said Glass, 21, in an interview. "Now I'm getting my life back together, working every day, striving to go to university and have a family. I work really hard at that every day."

Glass, who speaks to students about her experiences, is just one part of the Crystal Meth Society of B.C.'s many programs and successes. The charitable group was formed in 2005 by Mark and Ruth McLaughlin, Marilyn Erickson and their colleagues and friends.

Since its inception, the society has presented its Meth Info Show to 17,000 students, held community meetings, hosted conferences and established a program where nursing students provide support to addicted people on the street at night.

At a presentation at the Coast Victoria Harbourside Hotel and Marina last night, the province wide group announced B.C. Lt.-Gov. Stephen Point will serve as patron of the Crystal Meth Society of B.C.

That will further increase the profile of the group, currently taking its message and programs to civic and community leaders all over B.C. and throughout Canada, said Mark McLaughlin. "We have been invited to Ottawa to discuss our programs with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Public Safety and the RCMP [in December]," he added.

Six years ago, Glass didn't know what crystal meth (methamphetamine) was.

A Grade 9 student at Claremont Secondary School at the time, Glass had been educated to stay away from cocaine, heroin, acid and ecstasy.

Offered meth at a party, and too embarrassed to refuse and curious enough to experiment, she tried it. "I said no at first. I hadn't heard of it."

The first time felt good. After a few more times, she noticed she was more confident, more energetic, and enjoyed school more. She thought it would help her excel.

But it didn't take long for the highly addictive substance to fuel her downward spiral. "I tried it a few times when I was 15," she said. "Then I was using all the time when I was 16."

She stopped playing soccer, barely went to school, and eventually dropped out of Grade 10.

"You do a bunch of drugs and dig a deeper hole than you were in."

Sleep-deprived, skinny, sickly and very depressed, "I was not happy at all."

Glass tries to describe this deep depression to the scores of students she speaks to.

She's been off drugs for eight months, earned her Grade 12 diploma with honours at the Individual Learning Centre and is working full time.

"Kids will mostly listen to my experiences," Glass said. "My family life was not horrible, it was just complicated ... If I kept going to school, playing soccer ... I would have been able to face those problems."

Glass said no one, including herself, would have believed she could become a drug addict. She was doing "wonderful things."

She emphasizes to students that crystal meth -- often disguised as, or hidden in the widely available hallucinogenic designer drug ecstasy -- is stronger than they are.