Illegal drugs that provide an ecstatic rush, at least on the first try, have been growing in popularity in Guelph in recent years, as they have in many communities in southwestern Ontario, the leader of the Guelph Police drug unit said this week.
Enhanced drug enforcement last year helped stem the tide of mounting crystal methamphetamine and crack cocaine use, said Det. Sgt. Ben Bair.
Well over 20 arrests of traffickers – most of them convicted – disrupted the crystal meth supply chain, he indicated. But demand remains high, and other dealers have swooped in to meet it.
Bair said there are no known crystal meth labs manufacturing the drug in Guelph, although there have been rumours of them. Those rumours didn’t pan out upon investigation.
Typically, when the supply of one drug is hampered, prices go up and users will seek alternative drugs to get high on. Bair said there has been an increase in heroin use in the city. The drug is noted for being unpredictable, and sometimes lethal.
“We’ve had a significant increase in crystal meth in the city,” Bair said, adding that London, Kitchener, and Hamilton also have a high incidence rate for crystal meth use.
“It has significantly hit Guelph over the last three years, and I would say peaked in 2015,” Bair said.
Project Ice was an enforcement initiative last year primarily to reduce the distribution of crystal meth in Guelph.
“I think law enforcement efforts can help reduce supply, which is always our goal,” Bair said. “If you can reduce supply then the price goes up and the availability goes down. And, therefore, it is less likely that as many people will either use and become addicted to it.”
But while Project Ice was successful in that way, it had an unintended consequence.
“You essentially create both a drug, and a hierarchy vacuum," he explained. "What happens is, other people step up and become higher level meth traffickers then they were. What’s also happened is there’s been a resurgence of crack cocaine in the city, and most of that is supplied from cities mostly to our east.”
Crystal meth, he said, is reputed to give an intense high in the very early stages of use, often characterized as the equivalent of ten times the feeling of an orgasm. With crack cocaine the effect is somewhat less.
“Meth and crack are essentially stimulants,” Bair said. “Meth has more delusional aspect to it than crack does, and lasts longer."
He said meth and crack users will transition back and forth between the two drugs, depending on availability and price.
Bair said drug use is like other activities that give pleasure, they provide “a chemical drop in your brain.” Pleasure enhances dopamine and serotonin levels. Drugs spark an intense rush of those chemicals, especially the first use. Users will continue to use in pursuit of a repeat of that initial experience.
“While the high is extreme initially, the flip side of that, that rarely gets talked about, is the low,” Bair said, explaining that coming down from a meth or crack high drops a person well below equilibrium.
The highs typically diminish over time, while the lows intensify. Drug users will use multiple drugs – alcohol, opiates, marijuana among them - to manage those lows.
While Bair was reluctant to weigh in on the many societal issues that contribute to drug use, he did say that when people don’t feel good about their lives they “seek escapism of various sorts.”
“I think in general we don’t have a terribly resilient population,” he said. “And unfortunately they’re less able to tolerate the realities that we see.”
The topography of the current drug scene is shifting. There was a spike in meth use that has receded somewhat, and a subsequent rise in crack use. Along with these trends, heroin has made a resurgence.
“The other trend, not just in Guelph but across the province and across Canada, is the use of heroin, and with the use of heroin comes the use of fentanyl,” Bair said. Fentanyl is a heroin-like narcotic. “We’re seeing more seizures of heroin and fentanyl.”
These drugs, or a combination of them, can be extremely dangerous, Bair indicated.
“You literally are playing Russian roulette,” he said.
