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Many
teens struggle with stress in silence: study
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BY LORRAYNE ANTHONY, Brandon Sun, September 17, 2006
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“Crystal
Meth 101”
What
is Crystal Methamphetamine?
What does it look like?
What are the “street names”?
What are the short-term effects?
What are some of the long-term effects?
Other facts you should know about Crystal
Meth
Who uses Crystal Meth?
Why do people use Crystal Meth?
Is Crystal Meth illegal?
How does Crystal Meth affect the environment?
Why should farm and rural communities be concerned
about Crystal Meth?
Signs that there is a Crystal Meth “lab”
in your community
Crystal
Meth – Jesse’s Story
What
is Crystal Methamphetamine?
Crystal Meth is a highly addictive
man-made stimulant. A stimulant is something that makes you feel
really awake and alert.
What
does it look like?
It can come in the form of a
white or off-white powder, capsule or chunks that resemble pieces
of glass or ice.
What
are the street names?
Also called ice, crank, glass,
crystal, jib, and speed.
What
are some of the short-term effects?
When you first use this drug
you may:
*Feel very energetic, alert
and excited
*Experience a loss of appetite
*Have difficulty sleeping
*Experience excessive sweating and/or overheating
*Have trouble catching your breath
*Feel nauseous and throw up
*Have a dry mouth and cracked lips
*Experience uncontrollable shaking
*Develop sores on your skin as a reaction to the chemicals in
Crystal Meth
*Experience muscle spasms
*Be very uncoordinated
*Experience a racing heart rate, increased blood pressure, chest
pain and heart failure
What
are some of the long-term effects?
When you have used Crystal Meth
heavily and over a long period of time, you may:
*Develop damage to the blood
vessels in your brain that may lead to a stroke
*Experience nose bleeds caused by damage to the inside of the
nose from snorting the drug
*Experience paranoia (feeling suspicious and distrustful of
people for no reason)
*Experience confusion (feeling mixed up and unable to “think
straight”)
*Experience hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren’t
real)
*Become very irritable (easily annoyed and angered) and experience
severe anxiety (overwhelming fear and doubt)
*Experience “tweaking” (sores over face and body
from scratching at imaginary bugs under the skin due to hallucinations)
*Experience extreme weight loss
*Get lead poisoning from the lead based chemicals used in making
this drug
*Experience inflammation of the heart lining and heart failure
Other
facts you should know about Crystal Meth
*Crystal Meth is made with
a combination of ephedrine or pseudo-ephedrine (the stuff you
find in cold medicine) and/or diet and allergy pills along with
a healthy dose of toxic chemicals like paint thinner, battery
acid, antifreeze, red phosphorous, bleach, lye, acetone (nail
polish remover), drain cleaner and various other household cleaning
products!!!
*Using Crystal Meth in combination
with other drugs and/or alcohol increases your chance of overdose.
*Using Crystal Meth may give
you false confidence and lead you to make poor choices around
driving and sexual activity.
*If you inject this drug,
and share needles, you are putting yourself at risk for contracting
HIV and Hepatitis B and C.
*Even being in a home or building
that is, or was, being used as a “Meth Lab” is dangerous
to your health due to the toxic gases that are released as a
by-product of making this drug.
Who
uses Crystal Meth?
All kinds of people, of all ages
and from different social and economic backgrounds use this drug.
However, rural areas and small towns are ideal locations for “Meth
Labs” because of there out of the way locations.
Why
do people use Crystal Meth?
*Because their friends do it
*They want to lose weight
*To stay awake to study or drive long distances
Is
Crystal Meth illegal?
Yes. It is classified as a “Controlled
Substance” along with other drugs like cocaine and heroine.
How
does Crystal Meth affect the environment?
For all you people who like to
think and live “green” you will be horrified to know
that for every pound of Meth that is made, there are approximately
six pounds of toxic waste made along with it. This waste is often
disposed of in ways that are extremely harmful to the environment
such as, dumping in backyards, fields, rivers and lakes or burying.
Why
should farm and rural communities be concerned about crystal meth?
Crystal Meth can be made anywhere,
using many different methods and a variety of ingredients. However,
rural areas are considered a great place to start a “meth
lab” because of the out of the way location and easy access
to farm fertilizer – one of the most popular ingredients
when making Crystal Meth.
Farm fertilizer, or Anhydrous
Ammonia, is very expensive for Crystal Meth makers to purchase.
Only a small amount is needed to make Crystal Meth so any unsecured
fertilizer on a farm is an easy target for theft.
See www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/news/crystalmeth_en.pdf
for a downloadable brochure titled, Safeguard Your Supply of Anhydrous
Ammonia.
Signs
that there is a “Meth Lab” in your community:
*Strong chemical odors (may
smell like cat urine).
*Dumpsters containing many empty containers of chemicals such
as, antifreeze, starting fluids, nail polish remover, drain
cleaner, rubbing alcohol, bleach, lye and various other household
cleaning products.
*A large number of empty packages of cold medication, diet and
allergy pills.
*Evidence of dumping of chemicals (large burn pits, dead vegetation,
discolored soil)
*Materials stained red or with a white powdery residue as a
result of being used to filter toxic chemicals (coffee filters,
bed sheets, tea towels).
If you find evidence of a “Meth
Lab” in your area, tell your parents or call your local
police department.
Never try to investigate on your
own!!
“Manitoba
creates website for rural youth”
Published in the Western Producer
August 24, 2006
By Jacklin Andrews, BA, MSW
Someone once said
that it takes a whole community to raise a child.
These days, more
than the community is involved. We all have federal and provincial
government programs dedicated to the well-being of children.
Unfortunately,
those children living on the Prairies have a problem. Most of
the programs for young people focus on adolescents who live in
larger, urban centres. Young people living in the country tend
to be left out.
This is a problem
that the government of Manitoba
has addressed. It is sponsoring a “Youth Corner” website
(located at www.ruralstress.ca/youth) as a part of its general
farm stress line.
The website invites
all young people who live in the country to make contact with
it. The intent is to give rural youth something that is uniquely
theirs, something that will address issues and concerns puzzling
young people living in the country, and something that is available
and accessible to all of them.
I do not think
that kids in the country are necessarily different than kids in
the city are, but rural young people undoubtedly deal with issues
that do not challenge their city cousins. The biggest difference
is the familiarity that rural people share with each other. This
is both an asset and a potential problem.
Kids in the country
often know each other better than their counterparts in the city
do, and because of that, they can jump in with assistance when
one of them runs into problems at home, or at school, or perhaps
even on the ball team.
The familiarity
develops because fewer kids live in the country. They attend smaller
schools and sit in classes with fewer students. But it is those
small numbers that can also cause problems. They mean that the
young people at times depend on each other too much, and that
precludes the opportunity for each to pursue his or her own peculiar
interests.
For example, not
all the players on the hockey team may want to be there. But if
they do not join the team, chances are that the team will fold,
and that would cost them the friendship of those other kids who
want to play.
This is huge pressure
for a young person. Either he plays hockey, which he does not
want to do, or he is at risk of losing friends, which he or she
does not want to happen. It is stressful.
One would hope
that young people caught in this predicament would feel free to
make contact with the Youth Corner and talk their situation through
with someone on the line.
I do not think
that today’s youth work as hard on the farm as their parents
did. But they share in the farm stress. They know that too many
sunny days in a row bring fears of another drought, and they carry
those fears every bit as much as their parents do.
The problem is
that they often do not have anyone to whom they can talk about
their fears.
Hopefully they
will make contact with the Youth Corner and find someone there
with whom they can talk, and develop for themselves a perspective
on their concerns.
Jacklin Andrews is a family counsellor, living
and working in west-central Saskatchewan
who has taught social work for two universities. Mail correspondence in care of Western Producer,
Box 2500,
Saskatoon, Sask.,
S7K 2CA or email jandrews@producer.com
Living
On the Farm
I would like to take
this opportunity to tell everyone about living on the farm from
the perspective of my siblings and I.
Mom and Dad have
worked hard here, trying to build a future for the three of us.
What was once a viable operation on its’ own, must now be
supplemented with off-farm jobs. I’ve only been on the farm
for 16 years, but in this short time I have already gone through
many hardships, which my parents managed to work through. The
BSE crisis was especially hard – a three year time period
when the five of us didn’t know what would happen to the
beef industry and what sort of impact it would have on our farm.
Through adversity, we have remained faithful to our farm and have
been rewarded with good old country values.
Growing up on a farm
has taught my siblings and I many things; the most important being
to never give up, even when times get tough. It has also given
us all good work ethics, and a commitment to the dreams of the
future.
Helping my Dad on
the farm has equipped me with new skills and an awareness of my
potential. It has given me the confidence to take on new challenges
and to strive for my dreams. I am very proud to grow up on a farm
because we have a reputation among many of self-sacrifice, and
willingness to get our hands dirty.
I have always loved
working out in the field or in the cattle yard alongside my Dad.
I started this at a very young age. I can think of a time when
I was driving the tractor while Mom and Dad were picking rocks,
and didn’t know my directions yet. I think Dad finally realized
that no matter how loud he yelled I still didn’t know which
way East was…they just don’t teach that in Kindergarten.
I always envied my older brother who was able to show cattle in
4-H, but I was too young. I couldn’t wait to get the chance
to walk my steer around the ring like my big brother did. I started
4-H in the local Beef Club when I was 8 years old and was a member
for 7 years.
Although a long time
dream of settling here in my home town and taking over the family
farm may be out of my reach, I know that the work ethic and values
I have taken from here will stay with me in whatever career I
choose. I am very grateful to my parents and siblings, the community,
and this farm.
Rural
Youth Find a Voice On Violence
By
David Hutton, February 2006
Youth
feel isolated from adults in their experience of violence, alcohol
consumption is one of the biggest triggers of violence among teens,
and violence among young females is a pressing issue, says a unique
study which discussed violence with youth in rural communities.
“Rural
youth in this country really have not had a voice in violence
research,” says Judith Kulig, a University of Lethbridge
Health Sciences researcher and co-investigator
for the project. “Nobody
has sought their important perspective on the topic”.
Kulig,
along with professors Barry Hall and Ruth Grant-Kalischuk from
the University’s of Calgary
and Lethbridge respectively, conducted in-depth, open-ended
interviews with youth ages 11 to 19 in two small communities in
southern Alberta,
in the first part of their two-phase study.
While
violence is a common topic in urban centres, very little has been
done to study violence in rural communities.
“Our
statistics around violence tend to be taken from urban populations,”
says Kulig. “The
studies have been done in urban populations or if they have been
done in rural communities, they have been done in the United States”.
In
the interviews, rural youth spoke candidly about the meaning of
violence in their towns. Their
perspectives shed
light
on the nature and degree of violence in their communities.
Youth
defined violence as “a physical act with intent to harm”. In contrast to urban populations, gangs
and weapons were not considered an issue among rural youth.
For
Kulig, the most surprising theme taken from the interviews was
the degree of violence among female students, which, she says,
is a pressing issue.
“Violence
among female students is much more vicious,” says Kulig. “Whereas male students moved on from
fights that occurred on the weekend, female students tend to carry
the grudge throughout the week.
It’s much more psychological.”
The
youth interviewed also spoke of the relationship between the consumption
of alcohol and acts of violence saying that it is common for fist
fights to occur at parties in part due to intoxication.
One
of the biggest problems in such small centres is the inability
for youth to find private, confidential sources to confide in
when dealing with violence, Kulig says.
Kulig
emphasized that there is a difference between youth and adults’
perspectives in rural communities and that, for various reasons,
the resources to assist young people who experience violence in
rural communities are not accessed.
The
research team hopes that this study is the starting point for
more research focusing on rural youth and is a step toward implementing
better and more effective community programs to help curb violence
in small towns.
“Violence
isn’t a problem,” says Kulig.
“It’s a symptom of the problem. If relevant anti-violence programs are to
be effective and credible we have to listen to youth to better
understand what the problem is.”
“As
much as we as researchers want to see change brought about in
the end, it’s really up to the communities themselves to
follow up on the suggestions we’ve laid out.
So we’re leaving it in their hands.”
The study was funded by the Alberta
Heritage Foundation for Medical Research through a grant to the
University of Calgary
and includes partners from the University
of Lethbridge and Southern Alberta health and social service agencies
Recommendation
Points:
- Include youth in the development
of programs aimed at reducing violence.
- Due to lack of confidentiality
in rural communities youth are not accessing local counseling
and resources. Youth
should be informed about alternative methods of assistance such
as on-line information and counseling related to violence.
- Violence is a symptom
of larger problems that should be addressed by further investigations.
Dr.
Kulig can be contacted at kulig@uleth.ca
and the original research article can be viewed in the February
2006 issue of the international electronic journal, Rural and
Remote Health at http://rrh.deakin.edu.au.
*Permission to reprint this article in its original
form was given by: Agricultural
Health and Injury Prevention, author David Hutton and the Canadian
Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture
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