DAUGHTER 'SMELLED LIKE DEATH'

Grieving Mom Tells Students How Crystal Meth Can Destroy
Life

On the Sunday afternoon she last saw her young daughter Colleen alive,
she remembers the smell.

"She smelled like death," mom Carole Johnson says. "When my
grandmother died at 93, her body was breaking down and you could smell
it. "With Colleen it was the same. The meth was eating her organs and
the smell was seeping through her skin. It was a putrid smell."

Three days later RCMP called the Johnson home in the middle of the
night, telling them there had been an accident, a car crash. Hours
later Carole stood with her husband Dennis at the Health Sciences
Centre, called by the medical examiner to identify their dead child.

She was three weeks shy of her 18th birthday.

The former Dakota Collegiate Grade 12 student -- Colleen had quit
school before Christmas 2003 -- had been crushed to death, thrown out
of a speeding stolen car when the driver lost control on a gravel road
outside Portage la Prairie on July 27, 2004 and hit a hydro tower.
Carole says the red Chevrolet Cavalier then landed on top of Colleen,
driving her head into the ground and killing her instantly. In police
crash photos, only Colleen's legs can be seen.

RCMP allege the Cavalier was stolen earlier from Hadashville, about 70
kilometres east of Winnipeg. From Hadashville, they drove the car
about 110 km west to Oakville. It's believed they tried to steal
another car before speeding from the scene in the Cavalier and crashing.

A 20-year-old Winnipeg man -- Colleen's boyfriend -- was charged with
dangerous driving causing death and other offences. His case is still
before the courts.

Carole blames Colleen's death on crystal methamphetamine.

And she is now speaking out about Colleen's death to students and
parents to educate them about the drug.

"I don't want her death to be for naught," she says.

She'll also be featured in a new Winnipeg Police Service drug
awareness video that will be shown in schools throughout the city in
the new year, says Const. Jim Rogala.

Rogala says police have been telling school kids about methamphetamine
for about five years, beginning when police and health officials saw
it being used more frequently.

Police say the drug, made from easily available chemicals, is now
being used more often in the city and inching in on the crack cocaine
trade. "If I could just get through to one or two or three kids, maybe
they'll stay away from this stuff," Carole adds. "And maybe some
parents will start listening. Most have no idea."

Carole says Colleen was a top student, an avid soccer player with the
Greendell Falcons and a caring little sister who once talked about
being a veterinarian.

In the end she was none of these -- she was just a druggy hooked on
meth.

"The last time I saw her she said, 'Mom, it feels like I haven't seen
you forever,' " Carole says. "She gave me a big hug. Colleen never
hugged when she was on that s--- -- you couldn't touch her."

Carole says her daughter fell into drug use about two years before she
died, first using marijuana and then moving to methamphetamine as she
traded her school and soccer friends for drug friends.

Colleen's parents tried tough love by throwing her out of the house,
but when Colleen came they let her in, because on the inside she was
at least safe for a little while.

But no one could talk to her. Only a family psychologist offered any
insight.

"She had low self-esteem," Carole says. "She didn't feel worthy of
anything. She didn't deserve her friends or anything like that." They
also tried to get her into treatment, but as they soon learned there
is no mandatory detox for people under 18 in Manitoba, although that
may soon change.

The province is looking at involuntary treatment, as are Alberta and
Saskatchewan.

Carole says as it is now, they couldn't get Colleen admitted anywhere
because she wasn't a threat to herself or others.

"We do need treatment centres," Carole says, adding more funding has
to be set aside. "This drug does not discriminate."

The family even went so far as to ask police to lock up Colleen in a
jail cell to scare her straight. That was after she got caught in a
stolen vehicle and bitten by a police service dog that had tracked her
down after she ran away.

More than a year after her death, Carole says it's no easier grieving
her loss, especially at Christmas.

"If it wasn't for my faith and my church community, we couldn't have
gotten through this," Carole says, her crucifix pendant worn outside
her shirt.

Putting up the Christmas tree this year was really tough, as some of
the decorations were ones Colleen made as a child.

"I know she's with Jesus, and she's going to celebrate Christmas with
Him."