Beyond Crystal, Free Yourself From Crystal Forever

DL Scott CtHA / AASD / CDC

Nine years ago I was approached by a woman, Susan Kingston, to become the Methamphetamine Specialist for a King County Funded Project called Project NEON. Project NEON is a harm reduction program that initially addressed safer use among Gay and Bi-sexual men who inject Crystal Methamphetamine.

Susan was looking for a way to blend more traditional chemical dependency skills and tools with more alternative and newer methods of harm reduction and prevention philosophies. Since many Certified Chemical Dependency Counselors were not, at theat time, trained in both traditional and harm reduction philosophies, she felt that my unique blend of these two philosophies would be perfect for the needs of the program.

After a couple of months of deliberation, I accepted the job offer and was literally thrown into the deep end of the pool with out a life jacket.

What I discovered over the next 9 years is a way of looking at the relationship between, not only Crystal Meth, and Crystal Meth users, but specifically the Gay Community and Crystal Methamphetamine.

The first thing I learned was that this program was originally designed as a harm reduction program to address the fact 51% of all Gay and Bi-sexual men who injected Meth were also HIV+.

The initial belief was that this high infection rate was due to unclean injection practices. As more data was gathered, the new theory is that the high infection rate is more likely due to unsafe sex practices while on Meth. What I learned from my clients was that Meth = Sex, and Sex while on Meth was usually practiced in a very unsafe manner.

On any given day, clients would come into my office with the report that they had either been continuing to use Meth, or they had experienced a relapse of use on Meth. “So what did you do while you were high?” I would ask. Continue reading ‘Beyond Crystal, Free yourself From Crystal Meth Forever’ »

Recently, the police in Scotland discovered some amount of crystal meth. This substance is said to be the most addictive stuff in the world. The Scottish authorities are making effort to stop the meth epidemic, which is believed to be behind the violence experienced in some communities and families around Europe, Australia and US. It has destroyed or incapacitated so many people and has put the drug rehab and detox facilities under pressure.

In spite of the publicity against its use, the Scottish police discovered the substance in such a large quantity that surprised the authorities. The discovery of a large amount of the substance somewhere in Lerwick, Shetland was a poof of its presence in the country. This has now alerted the authorities that meth crystal availability if not checked will soon become an epidemic. Action is being taken to curtail the activities of youths who are engaged in home-grown cannabis.

Crystal meth is known in the street as ‘ice’. It is more addictive than cocaine. Its effect causes psychosis, a kind of mind-scrambling effect that propels the abusers into lack of self control. If you use it for a long time, your immune system begins to weaken leading to several devastating health conditions and eventual death.

Continue reading ‘Exposing the Dangers People Create With Crystal Meth’ »