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Crystal meth surpasses crack as street drug of choice

For the first time, crystal meth has surpassed crack as the street drug of choice for Red Deer-area drug smokers.
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Central Alberta Aids Network Society harm reduction coordinator Jenn McCrindle

For the first time, crystal meth has surpassed crack as the street drug of choice for Red Deer-area drug smokers.

And the worrying ramifications of this are causing the Central Alberta Aids Network Society to seek more funding for an extra staff worker to help educate meth users on better practices to help keep them alive.

Executive-director Jennifer Vanderschaeghe said her organization has discovered, through an informal survey of local drug users over the past six months, that crystal methamphetamine is the No. 1 drug smoked locally — moving past crack cocaine for the first time.

“We have not seen this much crystal meth use ever before,” she added.

Among injectable drug users, meth is now the No. 2 choice, following opiates, such as prescription drugs and heroin.

This is troubling news for CAANS, a non-judgmental non-profit organization that tries to keep drug users as healthy as possible so that when they choose to get treatment, they can be referred to the right programs.

Vanderschaeghe said crystal meth, which is made of common household toxic chemicals, debilitates users very quickly.

She believes the health effects of meth, are worse than that of crack cocaine, which is mostly a coca plant derivative.

While alcohol continues to cause the most addiction problems in our society, she notes that many alchoholics can often live relatively functional lives for years after becoming addicted, while crystal meth users go downhill fast, often within a couple of months.

“The decline in their life and the dramatic change is a worry.”

Because of this, Vanderschaeghe’s staff has noticed there isn’t as many “cultural learnings” going on — when seasoned drug users teach newer ones how to take the drug more safely. As a result, some inexperienced users are shooting the toxic chemicals into muscles instead of veins, causing more bacterial infections, or skin abscesses.

Crystal meth users are also doing “behavioural, drug-related stuff” that’s not causing them to co-exist well within the community, added Vanderschaeghe, who listed littering and exhibiting more hyper behaviours as examples.

Since crystal meth causes users to lose sleep and be awake for days at a time, they tend to lose their jobs and living accommodations. Vanderschaeghe believes police could better comment about whether their behavior turns violent.

“It’s different for everybody, but at the end of the day, we want to prevent deaths, prevent the spread of HIV and Hep(atitis) C, and keep the health of drug users up, so that when they are ready to quit, they are still alive.”

The Central Alberta AIDS Networks Society runs a needle exchange program and does health education surrounding HIV prevention on an annual budget of $557,000 from the province, federal governments and United Way.

CAANS, with a total of 8.5 full-time staff equivalents for day and night shifts, is responsible for a huge area, encompassing Wetaskwin, Wainwright, Drumheller and the West Country. But Vanderschaeghe noted overloaded outreach workers haven’t made it to outlying communities, such as Wainwright, for probably the last three years.

She is seeking a five per cent increase in funding to hire another full-time staffer to help deal with the extra workload caused by an increase in crystal meth use.

Meanwhile, harm reduction supplies distributed by CAANS have gone up significantly — to 37,745 clean needles in September 2013 from 10,385 needles in April 2011. Vanderschaeghe said the monthly average now seems to be 25,060 needles.

She said this doesn’t necessarily mean there are more illegal drug users in the area — outreach workers who collect users’ first names and dates of birth when used needles are collected, have discovered the same drug users seem to be taking more needles. (Steriod users are a small group among those accepting free needles.)

This may mean they are redistributing them among friends in rural areas that don’t have great access to the sites for the needle exchange. Vanderschaeghe said it’s hard to know exactly why the demand is up. Under the program, those who want needles can take as many as they want, no questions asked.

lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com