Meth becoming drug of choice

Police seeing methamphetamine overtaking opioids in Lethbridge

While the city is focused on what to do about the opioid crisis, methamphetamine use is quietly in danger of becoming the primary drug epidemic in Lethbridge.

“A key thing everybody needs to understand is we’re quickly seeing meth overtake opioids,” Lethbridge Police Service Chief Rob Davis told a Community Issues Committee panel on the opioid crisis Monday. “As we’re talking about opioids, let’s not get tunnel vision and forget we have a meth crisis that is, right now, on track to overtake or surpass the opioid crisis.”

In July, The Herald reported on the burgeoning meth crisis in southern Alberta — and Lethbridge in particular — following the release of an annual report by the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams showing 40 per cent of their $10 million in illegal drug seizures in 2017 was related to meth trafficking.

“By far, methamphetamine is probably our number-one drug on the streets here in Lethbridge,” said Staff Sgt. Jason Walper of ALERT in Lethbridge at the time, adding the drug was causing the most problems from a policing standpoint.

Jill Manning, managing director of ARCHES, said while the Supervised Consumption Site does track stats on types of drugs being used, the actual numbers can be “a bit of a crapshoot” due to the fact users sometimes believe they have a specific drug when they actually have something else.

“In terms of what our drug users believe that they are using, meth is 39.5 per cent of our visits,” she said.

Opioids are broken down across a number of substances. Heroin is about 21.7 per cent of usage at the site. Fentanyl accounts for about 23.1 per cent.

“(Overall), opioids would be about 45 per cent of drug use in the SCS,” Manning said. “And then meth is about 40 per cent.”

Methamphetamine was first discovered in the late 1800s and was later produced commercially for use as a stimulant in large quantities by both Allied and Axis soldiers — particularly pilots –— during the Second World War.

Other versions of the drug appeared later as obesity treatments. But as the side-effects of the drug became more well-known, availability became much more restricted.

It is an illegal or tightly restricted substance in many parts of the world that can be made locally using relatively easy-to-obtain chemicals.

Meth can be injected, smoked, snorted, or eaten. It is a cheap, intense high. Long-term use can lead to a number of health issuers and psychological issues such as anxiety, paranoia, insomnia and thoughts of suicide or homicide.

Unlike opioid users, who are pacified by their drug use, methamphetamine can cause disturbing, violent, or bizarre behaviour in people who use it, making them a danger to themselves, their families, the public and police.

Manning said erratic and unpredictable behaviour is a common side effect of many different stimulants, including cocaine and ecstasy.

At the SCS, stimulant use can be more difficult to deal with in terms of environment management. Manning said it is something staff have been able to deal with to this point.

“We’ve got extensive training in terms of de-escalation,” she said. “Also, we have to recognize that the nature of the police, and just the fact they are wearing uniforms and are police officers, will escalate a situation (whether they are contributing to it or not).

“Our staff have a very different relationship with users than the police do.”

Fatal overdoses from stimulants are extremely rare, Manning says, due to the nature of the drugs involved.

“It’s much more difficult to fatally overdose from a stimulant than it is a depressant,” she said.

In order to have a fatal overdose from a stimulant, the user basically needs to have a heart attack. In otherwise healthy people, that can be very difficult.

“Really, they just need time (to come down).”