June 1, 2012
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Meth
I have much to say about this topic, and I am sure I will spew my opinions over the next few weeks because it is close to my heart right now. When I worked with cities and towns one of our primary goal was economic development and attracting valuable jobs to rural areas. Though there are too many complexities to get into here, one of the biggest deterrents was the high number of meth users in a small pool of potential employees. It is difficult to persuade a company to invest in a town that has an unstable pool of employees.
The problem in rural areas is huge, as it is easier to cook meth without detection. That lowers the cost of the drug because it removes the transportation and some of the organized crime. It also lowers the quality (is that possible?) because a lack of proper chemicals and people making substitutions.We have all heard about the bath salts incident that caused the zombie attack in FL.
People use meth for many reasons. One of the big draws is weight loss. It is an amphetamine, causes you to stay up, have no appetite and more energy than you can have naturally. It also makes you feel like a star, confident, sexy, euphoric. After prolonged use it is reported that a user is unable to produce dopamine and feel good chemcals without the drug. Basically, it destroys your pleasure center of the brain while it ravages your body. More information can be found at this site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/body/
We have all seen the commercials about what happens to people who use meth. It is a persuasive ad, I can’t imagine why anyone would try after seeing it.
Yet people still do. I spent time with a former meth user recently. I felt like a moron. I have studied the impacts of meth, seen what has happened to meth houses, participated in task force groups to aid children of meth users, but I didn’t truly understand what it does. I am sure I still don’t. She was an obese girl when I met her, she was 16. She began using meth to lose weight, fit in, have a crowd. She isn’t obese anymore, but that isn’t really the point. She is less than 30 and looked older than my mother. She shook, she still had skin sores and scars from old sores, she didn’t have many teeth left and she looked haggard. Worse though, she seemed empty and sad. I hope the help she is utilizing can bring the light back to her eyes.
Meth is expensive, for all of us. “The economic cost of methamphetamine use in the United States reached $23.4 billion in 2005, including the burden of addiction, premature death, drug treatment and many other aspects of the drug, according to a new RAND Corporation study.” http://www.rand.org/news/press/2009/02/04/meth.html
“In 2005 it was reported that 58 percent of law enforcement officials in 500 counties surveyed by the National Association of Counties cite methamphetamine as their biggest drug problem. Half in the sample said that up to 20 percent of their inmates were incarcerated because of meth-related crimes, and some segments representing small counties and areas in the upper Midwest reported as many as 75 to 100 percent of their incarcerations as meth-related.
While that survey drew on a disproportionate number of counties in the West where meth is most widely available, the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) in February 2005, published results from a larger, random sample of 3,400 drug enforcement agencies nationwide. In the NDIC survey, for the first time since they have been taking such surveys, a plurality (40 percent) considered meth their leading drug threat. Cocaine came in second at 36 percent, and marijuana at 12 percent.”
I want to go on and on, about the personal impact meth use makes, the local, the state and nation wide impact it makes economically and socially. I want to explain the history of meth and preach that if it were regulated and controlled it wouldn’t be so dangerous. I want to talk about the devastation I have seen a family go through with a loved one on meth. But most of my posts are preachy, in one sense or another, so I am going to decline. Instead I am just going to say my prayers for the family I know that is going through this and all of the victims of the users and the users themselves. I know well enough to know that it could have been me if I had tried it, even once.
Comments (87)
I praise Jesus that I have never had experience with such addictions, nor have I known anybody that has. Nonetheless, It breaks my heart when I hear of stories on the news of meth users and their struggles. What is even sadder, is the reason that so many people turn to it. They think it will fill the void in their hearts, or help them ease their hurting. Like you mentioned, people using it to loose weight. I know that if people had their eyes fixed on the Lord, they would have peace in him.
By the way, I am not trying to force my beliefs on you. This is just how I feel. I was brought up in a devout christian household, and I am doing my best to follow him and his plan for my life. I apologize if I do sound pushy. It is not my intent.
My brother used it, as well as heroin, cocain, and who knows what else. He’s been off that stuff for about 5 years now (I think, it was definitely before our wedding, but not long before, that he returned from rehab for the last time) and has since graduated college with honors and gotten off the methadone. I’m so proud of him.
@WaitingToShrug - praise the Lord!!!!!
@EmeryAnn1013 – You weren’t pushy at all, I feel the same, though I don’t k ow who or what I praise
@EmeryAnn1013 - I feel the same way. Thanks for being an encouragement to me. It makes me sad too, to think that so many people are loosing their lives to this addiction.
Believe me, I too worry about sounding too pushy when I talk about Jesus in my comments to people. Its like I need to choose my words carefully and you are much better at that than I am.
@WaitingToShrug – You should be proud, not everyone comes out the other side!
I don’t know much about Meth. This helped. I was taught about drugs in grade school—1940′s. The police department came out with visual aids and explained the drugs in use at that time, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana. It scared me to death and I never used drugs except alcohol and cigarettes.
My son brought home a marijuana cigarette from middle school once. He was too ashamed not to smoke it with his ‘friends,’ and said he would take it home and smoke it there. Instead, he gave it to me to dispose of. I rushed it to the toilet and let him see me flush it. What I did not tell him was I flushed it down for my protection because I was tempted to try it.
frank
@ItsMeBriget21 – You never have to worry who or what you believe in on my posts
@BoulderChristina - Im glad
@WaitingToShrug - That is wonderful that he is doing so well
Godis really at work in him 
was and still is!
@ItsMeBriget21 - Thanks Briget! I definitely pray about how my words come across to somebody!
I had a friend who started using at 15. She was already skinny so she resembled a skeleton afterwards… She became a different person as well, & had awful eyebrows & picked at her skin. It was disgusting to witness. It’s sad that people get hooked on drugs.. Thank God I’ve been too smart to fall into that.
@BoulderChristina - thanks
@EmeryAnn1013 - Youre welcome
Yeah its hard and you know the experiences Ive had with it this semester. haha.
@EmeryAnn1013 - with choosing my words carefully that is
The whole thing with meth, bath salts, etc. is people give up caring for themselves because so many around them act like they are anonymous or irrelevant, and ought to just accept that anonymity or irrelevance. I don’t treat anyone that way, but so many people do- and call it “necessary for survival and sanity”. Shove enough people under the rug, and don’t be surprised when they come out from under, as monsters.
@ItsMeBriget21 - @EmeryAnn1013 - @BoulderChristina - Thank you all, I’m very proud. He’s one of the most determined people I know. He’s also incredibly intelligent and sweet, we are so thankful that he’s back.
I dunno man… my childhood was filled with meth users and I took a short stroll around that block, too. I was smart enough to get away and keep my distance before it turned into something really terrible. I’ve seen so many people throw their lives away for this stuff, hell, my sister is one of them. 10 years of meth, and now that she’s away from it, she’s still a fucking empty bag of shit with no personality other than the meth head that I knew her as when I was growing up. I should show you a picture of her cracked out face versus her “healthy” face.
You know what they don’t talk about outside of the meth labs? What no one ever seems to mention? How just about every meth head I ran into was into VERY young girls. They had no conscience about age whatsoever. That’s just how it is in the drug lifestyle. So when people say things like “drug users only hurt themselves” it makes me want to shit down their throats and tear out their spine. Drug users do terrible things to whoever is around them. They don’t fucking care because life isn’t real to them and they don’t see passed their own addiction.
Meth is bad. Drugs are bad. Mmmkay.
holy shit. i didn’t know squat about this before 5 minutes ago. i may never sleep again.
Don’t hesitate to say more on the topic. You’re improving the dialog in xanga like nobody else. I am amazed. Right, we have seen the commercials about methamphetamines, and it gets covered in the cop shows on TV. Violent crimes are committed by these addicts. I am sure you have more to say about that.
It’s a substance that is very hard on the human body, without a doubt. Props for this educational blog.
You should share the topic because if it helps one person to know the truth about how dangerous meth is then your preaching has done some good. You have to experience some serious, SERIOUS pain in your life to be pushed into a road of addiction. Most of the addicts I know have gone through some pretty harsh stuff, especially the ones they can’t escape their addictions. The drugs give them an escape from their reality and that is all that matters to them.
Drug use is in my family; the males, especially seem to have difficulty with it….Thankfully, I haven’t and really haven’t had the desire to do so.
Props to you for writing such an educational entry on it!
those pictures are inaccurate. smoking meth doesn’t do that to you, being homeless and starving to death does that to you. meth just gets you there a lot faster and helps you skip a lot of the stops.
alcohol can get you looking just as fucked up, but it’s hard to go on a 2-week alcohol binge without eating. If you’re that suicidal that you’re letting yourself go without food, friends, work, or entertainment, I encourage you to smoke all the meth you want and I hope it kills you. When you’re so desperate for a fix that you’ll smoke something made out of drano, you deserve to fucking die.
Meth was taking off as the drug of choice when I started teaching in Minnesota. We had so many seminars at that school about how to look for it and spot behavior of those on the substance. It was pretty creepy especially since a nearby college had a meth ring broken up because a fraternity was making it and a sorority was using it for a weightloss supplement.
I think the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard about meth is something a student’s mom and dad told me. They were farmers and one spring he was spraying his fields with ammonia. He came in for lunch and left the ammonia tank in a field away from the house. They hear a car pull up and look out at a guy walking around the tractor and the tank with a cooler. Soon the guy is trying to open a spigot on the tanker and is filling up the cooler with the ammonia. Well the farmer has his wife call the police and he goes out to confront the thief. The thief hears the door slam shut and he scrambles to leave but he hesitates. Then the farmer hears an incredible scream come from the thief so he doesn’t pursue him. The thief gets in his car and speeds away. The police arrive and they investigate the scene with the farmer. Turns out that the liquid ammonia is so cold that the thief had his fingers get frozen to a spigot and when he screamed, he ripped his fingers off. The guy was later caught with his methlab. He was stealing the liquid ammonia from farmers to use in his cooking.
Sorry Christina, couldn’t read the whole article. This hits SO close to home, having almost lost my condo when my last husband was found to be making the stuff in the garage, as well as selling it for one of the biggest Latino lords in the city we lived in. You have no idea what a shock it is to be walking out your front door to go to work just as the DEA and city Sherrif is knocking on it. Even more shock to find out you had been under surveillance for the past two years and weren’t even aware of it. Thank God there was a female agent that worked with me and did her report in such a way that proved I had absolutely no clue as to what was going on. So they walked out with him in handcuffs and I still owned the condo. Their surveillance was so good I think they might have even known what nights I never slept and possibly every time I went to the bathroom. Yes, I can laugh about it now but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I think about him turning the head guy in so he could walk and he never once thought about my safety. I shipped him off to Texas so fast I’m sure his head was spinning and then spent the next 12 months looking over my shoulder. School of hard knocks, baby!! Some times I wonder how I’m still here…
Great post even though the topic is totally depressing.
I never have understood why anyone would use it, or any drugs.
Being from Iowa, I’ve heard about what godfatherofgreenbay just said. I’ve also heard that there is a quicker, easier to hide way to make it–in a pop bottle! I don’t know how, but the ariticle I read said that it’s so dangerous, that some hospitals get overwhelmed with taking them in and treating their burns. That’s another way it costs us.
@ANVRSADDAY - You were tempted by it? What an interesting story! I am pretty inexperienced when it comes to drugs, too. I have smoked pot, and I have nothing in the world against smoking pot. Everyone I know smokes it, but it has only ever really made me sleepy.
@Mrs_FoodLover - The picking at their skin was what I found so disturbing. Hearing this girl describe it she said it’s like having a pimple and not being able to leave it alone. She wasn’t even sure if the pimple was real or imagined, but she would start picking and pick at herself obsessively until she has scars covering her face, neck and arms.
@RighteousBruin - Very true words. I couldn’t agree more.
@SasGal - Women are more susceptible to it because of the confidence and weight loss. When you are a chubby 13 year old you don’t care about anti drugs, you care about being pretty and fitting in. At one point more that ninety percent of the women in the penn were there for meth or meth related crimes.
I am glad you were able to break away from that. I am sorry to hear about your sister.
@promisesunshine - Just keep your lovely daughters away from it!
@we_deny_everything - Ah, thanks! Though, I am not sure it’s for the better! I have so much to say about it I am sure this won’t be the last post you see about this from me
@Big_Bang_Theory - Thank you!
@BoulderChristina - wrote it on my to-do list.
@Erika_Steele - I agree, the escape from reality is very appealing. People do that in all sorts of ways, video games, workaholics, obsessive exercise. But the damage that comes from this escape makes your new reality a nightmare. I feel bad for people who get lost in it. Thank you so much for your kind words.
I did a lot of stupid things in my lifetime. Heck I still do, but thankfully, Meth was never one of them.
Great post. Awareness is a crittical step to helping find solutions.
@Xbeautifully_broken_downX - Thank you! I know a little about the problems you have had with drugs in your family, and that pushed you to help others for it. I am sure you know all about this in your field, you have your work cut out for you!
@tst08 - I am sure you aren’t alone with your beliefs, but I don’t share them with you. I think there is a point in anyone’s life where they may be vulnerable or curious or just in the wrong crowd, and they could try this. Addiction can be from the first puff, and nearly impossible to kick. i don’t think anyone deserves to die over it, everyone deserves more than one chance.
@godfatherofgreenbay - OMG! YIKES.
@godfatherofgreenbay - I was in South Dakota when I learned about it, all the farm and ranch materials, buildings and privacy made that area of the world perfect mixing grounds for labs. I had no idea ammonia could do that to a person, how creepy! It didn’t stop him though, did it?
@MzSilver - Wow, what a story! You are right, I don’t know how you survived it all! If you lived in a condo while he was cooking it, not only did you get it in your system indirectly, but so did almost everyone in your building. The residue of meth that can be found when cleaning a lab in a basement, garage, anywhere can be found all over and it is usually cheaper to raze the property and build again. I am so sorry you went through that, I am glad you booted his ass.
@PrisonerxOfxLove - Isn’t it? I promise to post something more fun next time.
@NightCometh - I understand why and how, I am more confused why I didn’t, and neither did my family.
@whyzat - I’ve heard of that, too! I heard a story about a guy who would put it in a bottle and hang it from his handlebars while he biked around town so he could mix it without holding it. It exploded when the police tried to arrest him for it. Where in IA? I was in Sioux Falls. One of the books we had to read was Methland, the story of meth in
Oelwein, Iowa. Maybe that is where I heard the bike story?
@promisesunshine - Meth?
@Aloysius_son - Me too! I am lucky myself, and thank you.
@BoulderChristina - keeping the girls away from it. a flippant answer to a serious suggestion. (since i have no idea how to accomplish this)
@promisesunshine - haha, right. I didn’t even remember I had said that, so your humor was lost on me
I have no idea, either, but I made my kids volunteer at the shelters and once at the homeless dining hall (we called it the Banquet) and some things they saw there scared them shitless. Me too.
@BoulderChristina - I’m from a tiny town on the east side: Lost Nation. It’s close to Maquoketa and Dubuque. That crap wasn’t going on when I was a kid. Dad lives in a condo and he thinks that the girl next door to him is cooking it! I told him to call an anonymous tip line!
@whyzat - He needs to, look above at my response to MzSilver. The spread of chemicals and toxins was so widespread in multi-family units that everyone in the building is exposed and in danger. The cost of rehab and cleaning is so high that most buildings are razed.
@BoulderChristina - None of those reasons had anything to do with why I was doing meth. I understand how it might appeal to some people for those reasons, but mine were completely different.
@SasGal – why, if you don’t mind sharing that is.
@BoulderChristina - http://sasgal.xanga.com/744164430/my-first-good-boyfriend/ - This is why.
I have kept this one, and several others protected for awhile. I will leave it public for a few days before I protect it again.
Would you believe it was our local sheriff who was the impetus in getting bath salts deemed illegal after speaking with the FL legislature? The shake and bake method of making meth has caused many serious burn injuries down here. A husband and wife were handed pretty stiff sentences, 50 and 30 years,respectively, for causing 3rd degree burns on their 2-year-old from shake and bake.
I think you could expound upon this. I suppose I just like to be expounded upon…
what a disgusting drug. this only reinforces my belief that instead of imprisoning drug users, we need to treat them. I’ve long believed that all drugs should be legal, but when I heard what meth does to a person it really makes me think.
@SasGal – I’m on my phone an cant read it until tomorrow. Do you mind holding it open for me?
@Kellsbella – Wow, good for him. I will be happy to expound on you any day
@heckels – I have the same belief. Meth was safe and legal until 1979 when they outlawed it. You could use it for weight loss or energy, it was popular with otr drivers. It was created by the German government for soldiers. When it became illegal it started getting cut with poison, hence the ppl you see above.
@BoulderChristina - I can do that, or I can just message you the text.
@SasGal – Whichever you prefer, thanks for sharing it with me
My family is full of crack heads. I’m not ever going near any of the crap. I’ve seen first hand how it can ruin someone.
I learned too much about meth in chemistry, I can’t comprehend why it would seem like a good idea to somebody to ever try it for the first time. Those teeth.. ugh. Right when you think meth couldn’t get any worse, sometimes these people who have meth labs in their homes also have children, even infants, not only being around the chemicals but in danger of the meth lab itself exploding.
Unrelated; when someone on my friends list recommended this entry, your username caught my eye, too–I live in the boulder county area! Extra kudos to you.
Meth. That word makes me shake just hearing about it…
I’m in Recovery for a Meth and Heroin addiction. Oddly enough, I could put the heroin down whenever I wanted to but the Meth is where the problem was. After I had my son, I had issues loosing weight. That’s when I first started with Heroin. I fought for many years and went in and out of detox centers and then one day was offered Meth. I basically switched one addiction for another. With Meth, it took my life, destroyed it basically. I was in trouble with the law for the first time although dropped more weight than I ever had in my life but at the same time, I looked scary. I looked mean and thin and was very violent at the same time. I didn’t care about myself or anyone else. It was all about getting the fix. I have been sober for quite sometime after forcing myself to go into Rehab for 6 months. Everytime I hear something on the news about Meth, I’m so thankful that I’m sober and not where I once was. I never want to return there! As for the teeth, it’s true, meth really does that. I’m in the process of getting my teeth fixed but they will always be stained and I was told even bleaching them will not work. My teeth are no where near like that picture but I have seen people like that.
I’m a firm believer in the completely legal process of people being raped in prison for being willing to experiment with mind-altering substances. Then again, I’m a huge, flaming homosexual sadist and I love seeing people raped and tortured for being stupid enough to believe they can have rights without my permission. I’m just saying. Shit, I’ll sell a guy crack just to see him get raped in prison.
@Caldwell88 - Recovery: the Mafia’s fine art of getting money back from drug users without having to give them any more drugs.
@tst08 - Sorry, but this is no place for trolls. You are blocked.
@Caldwell88 - Congrats on your recovery! I have heard that it’s very difficult to beat the meth addiction, and I applaud you. Your teeth can be fixed, your body healed, but only if you find the strength to keep fighting the addiction. Thank you so much for your story.
@brrraaaiiins - Well hello neighbor!! It’s scary, isn’t it? That’s why it isn’t surprising that people are also using bath salts, it’s only a single carbon molecule away from being the same stuff. Do you go to CU?
@lovelybish - It’s sad, I am sorry for you and your family.
@BoulderChristina - Because the kind of people using bath salts aren’t the kind to research their habbits haha. I’m transferring to CU at the semester, I spent my first year up at Fort Lewis, so I’m home for the summer. I’m transferring as soon as possible, though, Fort Lewis is cutting too many programs.
Yes, and who can forget Nick Nolte’s before and after pictures! I have seen several patients who have been addicts and some who have had help from the professionals. Great post.
Hmmm…I gotta get me some meth.
^ I KEED, I KEED!!
@brrraaaiiins - Very good point about the users. I am glad you will be transferring!
@Unstoppable_Inner_Strength - Not today, ok?
Good post all the meth users I know are really fucke dup
my brother was addicted to meth for 8 years. It destroyed him, my parents, our family. He stole from us, stole my car, almost died multiple times. It wasn’t until he was facing prison and the judge gave him an option of rehab that he got sober, but he said if he ever came back through he was going straight to prison. It is a hell of a drug. Destroyed my lifelong friendship with my friend amy also, her use.
@ShimmerBodyCream - Me too. Thanks
@voodoo_flower_child - So sad to hear that, but I am glad he is better now.
@BoulderChristina - meeee too. Was not a fun time, but definitely veered me away from ever messing with the stuff. I messed with my fair share of other substances, but never meth
@voodoo_flower_child - At least that is one good thing that came out of it!
Very well said!
I have seen meth completely destroy a few of my friends. They look like they are in their forties, when they are 23-25. I’ve never seen anything like it before, the effects of this drug are unbelievable.
I know people complain about how graphic some of the Meth Project commercials are, but apparently learning about it for two days in Health Education in high school is not doing the trick. Sometimes, kids just need to see the truth and those commercials and billboards are the reality of doing Meth. It is time to stop sugar coating the truth about drugs in school. When I was in high school, which really wasn’t long ago, we were just pretty much told “don’t do it”. Obviously, That didn’t work for everyone.
I am all for the commercials, billboards, magazine ads and even the graphic pictures of lung and gum cancer to go on cigarette packs.
This is a great blog, thank you for posting!
I’m a college student. Last semester, I interned with the Colorado Meth Project and gave speeches to high school classrooms along with 2 volunteers who were former addicts. Both of the volunteers shared their powerful and captivating stories with meth, day after day. However, I was sad to hear one morning that *Jeremy could no longer make it to the speeches because he had relapsed after 7 years of sobriety. The drug is awful. It’s powerful stuff. A lot of classmates I knew in high school smoked meth. I still see them when I visit town and they’re still living a sad life of crime.
@amyha819 - That is so, so sad. Where do you go to school? I am in Boulder, CO.