Back in the 1960’s when more and more and drugs made their way to more and more people as a mostly-misguided method of trying to make sense of it all, there was little disagreement on the must to avoid.
Crystal meth: short for crystal methamphetamine, long for its street name–speed.
The dictum on the street was clear: “Never trust a speed freak.”
An accurate admonishment.
Crystal meth remains prevalent in communities across New Brunswick(CBC)
Speed freaks–way more often than not–turned out to be total creeps.
So euphoric was the high, so horrendous was the low, that users spent way too much time trying to score another hit.
You simply couldn’t trust them.
They hardly heard a word you said.
Now, sadly, crystal meth is casting a dark cloud Down East, especially in New Brunswick.
It isn’t pretty.
According to an in-depth report by the CBC’s Vanessa Blanch, people in New Brunswick are now getting a closer look at crystal meth’s pernicious consequences first hand.
Meth appears to be eclipsing opioids as the drug of choice for people in New Brunswick. (CBC)
More and more people in the province are using the drug, which can be bought on the street for as little as $5 a hit.
“It’s a health crisis,” Debby Warren, executive director of Ensemble, formerly known as AIDS Moncton, told Blanch.
Warren and others who work on the front lines of addiction say the crisis magnifies a lack of detox and rehab services.
“I don’t know any health situation where people have to go and prostitute themselves or steal to get their medication,” Warren told Blanch.
“We need decision-makers to step up and look at this situation and what it’s doing to our community.”
What the front-line workers and their fellow New Brunswickers are seeing won’t shock anyone whose ever been around the drug.
Many New Brunswick front-line workers worry people addicted to the crystal meth won’t be able to get the detox help they need. (Ralph Orlowski/Reuters)
Warren describes crystal meth as “really quite scary” for users and the people around them.
She says she’s seen people being unable to sleep for as long as four straight days.
Blanch reports that a survey by the New Brunswick Community Alliance, one respondent warned, authorities need to get on top of the crystal meth thing or there’s going to be big problems.”
That person added: “You should see what it does to people. Once someone is on it for six months, they don’t give a damn about anything.”
With files from CBC
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