Can that message be driven home any more acutely than it has in this community? In the past five weeks, the popular man-made drug has taken two lives, and is responsible for another that hangs in the balance.

On Nov. 27, Tyler Miller, 20, took ecstasy. He was a gifted Abbotsford musician and student, with great career plans. It's all over. He was dead in eight hours.

On Dec. 19, 17-year-old Cheryl McCormack of Abbotsford ingested ecstasy with some friends ostensibly as a weight loss aid. She became unresponsive, and three days later, she died. She was a bright, fun and athletic teen.

On New Year's Eve, a 24-year-old Abbotsford woman engaged in "recreational" use of ecstasy with three friends. By 6 a.m. she was in critical condition in hospital, where she remains today.

A 24-year-old Abbotsford woman is battling for her life after ingesting ecstasy with three friends on New Year's Eve. Abbotsford Police Const. Ian MacDonald said the woman, whose name has not been released, was at a home in the 33700 block of George Ferguson Way when she became unconscious and unresponsive.

She was treated on scene at about 6 a.m. on New Year's Day by BC Ambulance and Abbotsford Fire Rescue personnel before being transported to hospital. MacDonald said the women, ages 23 to 31, took "numerous" blue ecstasy pills throughout the evening, starting at the residence. They then went out for the night and returned to the home, ingesting the last pills at about 4 a.m. The friends indicated that the victim consumed more pills than they did, MacDonald said.

Mark Kleiman is a veteran of the drug-rhetoric wars. The problem with the drug debate, he says, "is that it's conducted between the disciples of Michel Foucault and the disciples of the Marquis de Sade." Foucault believed that the only crime is punishment. De Sade thought the meaner the punishment, the better.

Mr. Kleiman, a bushy bearded liberal Democrat, is a professor of public policy at UCLA and a leading expert on drug policy. His new book, Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know, is an invaluable guide to the facts. He favours harm-reduction programs such as Insite. But he also thinks that people who endorse the disease model of addiction can be just as ideological and simple-minded as the law-and-order crowd. "Some disease proponents ignore the fact that drug abuse is a disorder of the will," he says. "In my view, disease and bad habits are completely consistent descriptions of the same behaviour."

Researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto used medical records for more than 40,000 people in California who had been hospitalized for abusing meth- or amphetamine-like stimulants from 1990 to 2005.

They were compared to records for more than 200,000 people admitted for appendicitis, and more than 35,000 diagnosed with cocaine use disorders. A diagnosis of Parkinson's was identified from hospital records or death certificates.

The study found that the methamphetamine group had a 76 per cent higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease.

Dr. Stephen Kish, a co-author of the paper, says it's important to note that the findings don't apply to patients like those with ADHD who take amphetamines for medical purposes, since they use much lower doses.

Meth production doesn't depend on agriculture. While the ingredients of narcotics must be grown, meth depends on pseudoephedrine. It's the active ingredient found in decongestants. Illegal labs easily convert pseudoephedrine into methamphetamine.

Meth provides a euphoric high. Users report that the feeling is so intense that every other experience seems hollow. They are immediately hooked, intent on finding the next hit.

The effect on health is devastating. Skin tissue and blood vessels are destroyed. Teeth fall out and open skin sores appear. Liver damage and convulsions ravage users. They become frail and gaunt as health deteriorates; eventually they become barely recognizable caricatures of their former selves.

Canada could take some lessons on how to control meth production from Oregon, the first state to be ravaged by meth. Fifteen years ago, meth was devastating whole communities. One user's solution to the epidemic was drastic: "they should just bomb this whole area, it's that bad," she told PBS network's Frontline.

Symptoms such as blood pressure problems, stroke, and hallucinations, are not the only thing Cocaine users must worry about; they must also be concerned with rotting flesh.

In a publication of Annals of Internal Medicine, doctors discussed two cases of women with a history of Cocaine abuse who both suffered symptoms consisting of purple lesions on the face, ears, legs, and other parts of the body.

Doctors claimed that these symptoms are common for toxicity with Levamisole, an approved anti-worming agent used for veterinary purposes typically used to treat cattle, sheep and pigs. The substance was once used to treat autoimmune diseases, kidney disorders, and cancer in humans in the U.S. but since has been banned for its side effects.

These effects, doctors claim, are being seen in Cocaine users, ranging from a variety of symptoms. The least serious being skin lesions, which are easily treatable and go away in time The most serious side effect being Agranulocytosis, a disease that effects white blood cell content and which requires hospitalization to cure.

Diagnostic Laboratory Services released its year-end numbers for 2009 and found that crystal meth use rose 33 percent from 2008.

According to the laboratory, which conducts tests for companies and those seeking employment, the biggest rise came in the fourth quarter. The lab conducts 7,000 to 10,000 drug tests each quarter, and in late 2009, meth use was up 57 percent from the year’s average rate.

“We don’t know if it’s attributed to the economy, perhaps, or if it is a one-quarter anomaly,” Carl Linden of Diagnostic Laboratory Services said.

Drug prevention groups like the Hawaii Meth Project said it’s common to see increases in substance abuse in a bad economy.

Jang was referring to a study published last month in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that revealed a spike in HIV rates among the city's crack smokers. The researchers recommended opening a supervised inhalation room and conducting a scientific trial to see if HIV rates would decrease. Dr. Perry Kendall, the province's chief medical health officer, supports the recommendation.

Nanaimo's Ryan Glover credits Vancouver Island University's Adult Basic Education program and a counsellor at a local recovery centre for getting him off the street and keeping him away from the drug use that almost ruined his life.

The former crystal methamphetamine addict will graduate from VIU this summer and wants to help others kick their addictions and become contributing members of society.

What he was cooking was crystal meth, a scourge drug that is becoming more and more prevalent in Toronto.

"Unfortunately, crystal meth is here," says Staff-Insp. Mario DiTommaso, head of the drug squad. "It is becoming prime time in my morning reports (from officers in the field.)

"Not only is it dangerous to make because of the volatility of the chemicals used, it is also an extremely addictive drug, more so than crack cocaine."

While hazardous chemicals were indeed discovered at the scene of the Craven Rd. fire, necessitating a hazmat team being called in to both tame and contain the chemicals, the actual drug being manufactured was not revealed.