Methamphetamine seizures are on the rise in New Brunswick and that's not a good thing, according to police.

Wayne Jeffery, a Vancouver-based forensic drug expert who retired after more than 30 years as a police officer, says meth is one of the most addictive drugs a person can take, trailing only heroin. And people hooked on meth are prone to violence, both because of the psychological effects of the drug and the junkies' desperation to get their next fix.

"The user is addicted before he knows it," says Jeffery. "He thinks he's in control of himself when he's not and, by the time he's out of control, it's already too late."

Coming from Vancouver, which has a rampant meth problem, Jeffery has seen the consequences of this drug first-hand.

"There are lots of clandestine laboratories in B.C. and it's getting worse and worse on a yearly basis," he says. "There's a lot of violence that comes with meth."

Jeffery is in Moncton speaking to Atlantic Canadian drug investigators at a police workshop, talking to investigators about being expert drug witnesses, which involves being able to assess a drug seizure and determine if the drugs are for personal use or trafficking.

As part of the training session, hosted by J Division's Synthetic Drug Unit, police held a media event to talk about the dangers of the growing meth trade in New Brunswick. Police are warning people about the presence of meth and the dangers involved in taking it.

Jeffery says when people use meth over a long period of time, the brain becomes depleted of natural "feel good" chemicals in the brain. All that's left are the chemicals from homemade meth and they leave a person no longer able to function, where they can't even control their muscle movements. They are "hyper-vigilant" and on the verge of psychosis.

"They see a police officer and they're going to fight," says Jeffery.

Their heart is so strained that when meth addicts are cuffed, subdued or tasered by police, heart failure is not uncommon.

Meth has been in New Brunswick for several years now and is mostly imported from Quebec.

"Because of the proximity to Quebec, meth is often found in the northwest part of the province," says Sgt. MaryAnn MacNeil of the RCMP's Drug and Organized Crime Awareness Services. "But that's not stopping traffickers from moving it into other parts of New Brunswick."

Sgt. Daniel Nowlan, of the Bathurst and Edmundston Regional Drug Unit, says over the past four years, police have broken up several organized crime rings in the north that involved meth, including one in Edmundston where 100,000 pills were seized.

"Meth is available in this province but I don't think it's a crisis right now," he says. "But we are seeing more on the streets of New Brunswick. It's growing."

Codiac RCMP Cpl. Mike Gaudet says meth is not a huge industry in Moncton, but it is available here.

"We're trying to stop that wave from rolling to the east coast," he says.

One of the most dangerous things about meth is that it's a homemade drug. When people buy it, they have no idea what they're getting.

"Unless you made the pill, how do you know what's in it?" asks MacNeil.

Because the stimulant is cheaply made, it's often sold to people as ecstasy, which is a combination stimulant-hallucinogen that's more expensive to make. Drug producers are substituting the cheaper, highly addictive meth for the less addictive ecstasy. Not even a drug expert could look at the two different pills and be able to tell the difference, without lab analysis to say which is which.

Nowlan points to several bags of pills on the table, seized in 2005 up north, to illustrate how they all look the same.