Tragedy of US crystal meth orphans

[T_i_B]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1548835,00.html

The House of Hope stands on land cleared by a tornado that roared through the woods a few years ago near this little town. But the vulnerable children inside are more concerned with man-made dangers. In this corner of rural America something out there is much worse than a twister: it is called crystal meth.

Known as crank or ice, meth is the latest drug epidemic to hit America. Following hard on such scourges as heroin and crack, meth has taken a stranglehold on large swathes of the US. Unlike its predecessors, it is not found in inner-city ghettos but in the mostly white rural heartland of states such as Iowa, Missouri and Tennessee, devastating such places as Cumberland County, a picturesque place of rolling forests overshadowed by the Smoky Mountains.

The House of Hope, near Crossville, looks after some of the innocent victims. Dubbed 'meth orphans', they are children taken into care when their parents are arrested and jailed. They have usually grown up in 'meth labs', home factories for making the drug, and have suffered terrible mental and physical abuse. The House provides temporary refuge until foster parents can be found.

The need is great. In the last six months more than 60 meth orphans have come through the doors. All are from Cumberland County, whose population is just 50,000. 'We are at the epidemic stage in Tennessee. It is terrible,' said Mike Steinmann, head of the orphanage, standing in a room full of toys donated by local people.

[tanyev]

1. Found mostly in the white rural heartland?

But...but...but that's the heart of God-fearing, Bush-loving, family values. Guess a lot of people aren't coping too well with maintaining the Stepford veneer.

[annabanana]

3. not to worry..

the gated communitites aren't being hit real hard with this horror..just those, you know, poor people..

[bribri16]

9. I would be mad as hell about this admin and Repugs neglect of this

problem just so they can pretend it doesn't exist in the hearland. And if they handle this drug crisis the same way they do the durg crisis in the inner cities the heartland will be decimated in short order because few want to admit that there is a problem, that social services are needed as well as drug rehab and intervention...all actions that have been smeared as liberal welfare.

[rodeodance]

13. I have read horrible stories coming out of Wisconsin also.

[barb162]

71. No, also in cities and suburbs. Newsweek did its cover story

on meth last week

[Poppyseedman]

2. Drug laws obviously are working here. Let's pass more.

:sarcasm:

[leftchick]

4. the FBI and AG are busy busting medical marijuana clinics

that is the scourge in this country according to this misadministration. Pot smokers! :grr:

[pretzel4gore]

5. another fukking psych op.....

what are the arm bandits up to? their sudden CONCERN for this particular drug ...possibly linked to fact marijuana toleration is the link they say; the idea being to a) battle the meth epidemic with every jackboot available and b) introduce zero tolerance of marijuana; even if the weed is found growing in your back 40, you go away.
one thing for sure: these baastaards use the 'news' as a weapon in a race/class/ideological war no one but they are aware is even going on.....sort of a 'war on terror' redefined for domestic use....
beady lil eyes and tasers and nukes and geebush iow amerikkka

[SouthernDem2004]

6. What article did you read???

[pretzel4gore]

20. the bushbots make me paranoid

this item is being cherry picked from the soup...they decided to run this item and that says they ignore so many which really affect life...even if the meth/drug thing is big, it still rather plain law enforcement issue and not 'fill the news' issue

[Poppyseedman]

7. This is linked to a UK article

I don't think the British bobbies are going to be busting down your door real soon.

But, I get your point. The WOD is a tidy excuse for violating our 4th amendment rights

[depakid]

32. You obviously know nothing about meth

This drug is qualitatively different than anything that's been seen in the past, Absynthe, heroin, crack- they all pale in comparison.

Normally, I'm about as libertarian as one gets with drugs- but NOT with meth.

Hard core users need to get treatment- and that means inpatient treeatment. Barring that, jail time (for at least 8-10 months) is about what it takes for the brain to regenerate its dopamine pathways. Meth literally fries them- which means addicts have anhedonia (literally, they can't feel pleasurre) without the drug.

[pretzel4gore]

34. glue sniffing is worse

huffing gas....that sorta thing. point is, there are winos and they will find the stuff; you can't turn society upside down because of it. the real murder dope is alcohol....men have murdered their families under its influence, and had no memory of it....i've personally met a guy who killed his brother: he said he never did it, cuz he loved his brother! despite dozens of people seeing it.
meth is bad, as is speed, and they need to be controlled, but bush is worse then either speed or meth or heroin or glue (he is glue, to the bushbots, when you think of it!) and notice the 'concerned' are rather indifferent to that

[Talismom]

35. There was recently a NYT article about how it destroys the teeth of these

users and more recently a TV show recently showing how it turns a brain into "swiss cheese". A real horror of a drug!

[T_i_B]

51. Jail time?

I have a question here, are US Prisons drug free?

UK Prisons are anything but drug free and they would be the worst place to send addicts. Some sort of treatment centres seem to me to be the best option.

[depakid]

75. I hate to say it- but yes

If addicts can't get treatment, they need somewhere to be off of the pipe. While there are drugs in jails, they're expensive and difficult to use the way an addict would on the street.

I thought I knew everything there was to know about this scourge from a friend of mine who's done foster parenting for kids who've been (or in some cases should have been) "orphaned" by meth. I've seen kids who've been irreversibly brain damaged from parents who cooked in their house when they were infants- I've seen physical scar from abuse, I've watched as meth heads steal anything around the neighborhood that's not nailed down.

But at the annual meeting of the Oregon Food Bank, we had three speakers- a precinct captain, a drug rehabilitation director and a homeless activist present what turned out to be an unlikely chorus of things beyond anything I'd hear before- and they were pretty much all in agreement.

This is qualitatively diferent than anything we've seen in the past- and it will require strong measures (and a modicum of inconvenience to people using cold meds) to make even a dent in the increasing number of users.

[T_i_B]

78. Not in UK Jails

It's quite common for a criminal to go into a UK prison clean and leave an addict as drugs in our prisons are so rife! That's why I'm sceptical about Jail times as a solution.

Specialist treatment centres where drugs cannot be procured I'm all in favour of but first and foremost you have to keep the drugs out of these places and that is not easy.

[evermind]

8. Is this "meth" just methamphetamine (speed) or something new? (n/t)

[Gman]

10. I think it's the old fashioned, speed kills, crank.

[Pepperbelly]

11. sos ... they've been cooking it since the 70s that I remember. nt

[DBoon]

33. "Amphetamine Annie"

Canned Heat did a song about it in the late '60s

It was the drug that destroyed Haight Ashbury

[AuntieM1957]

16. Made with pseudoephredine and ammonia

cooked to burn off the pseudo - sometimes others things are added.

Also called ice.

More states are making it harder to buy the decongestant type over the counter drugs that have pseudoephredine in them. Now most require a signature, age limit, behind the counter purchase.

But they are still easy enough to get - through the internet. Have your users supply them, etc.

And the high it produces somehow burns off more quickly each time so they must use more to maintain it.

It's cheap, easy to make, and considered as addictive as heroin, but in a different way because it's a stimulant.

What frightens me is that all ages are using it. Soccer moms who want to drop a few pounds quickly and have enough energy to make it through the days are using it. And so is a member of my family.

[brentspeak]

17. Easy to make, but also easy to blow up in one's face

A magazine article the other week contained some pictures of meth lab attempts gone awry: a 19-year-old girl with half her face melted following a lab explosion.

[AuntieM1957]

19. that was in Newsweek

worth a read if anyone is interested in the scope of the meth problem

[High Plains]

29. There are strong critiques of the Newsweek article for its

sensationalism.

Read John Tierney in the New York Times, Debra Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle (I think), and there was a Slate columnist who trashed it, too. You'll have to google for the links, though.

[AuntieM1957]

37. critics aside, I've lived the problem

as I mentioned in my earlier post, I have a family member who is hooked on meth.

Frankly, I didn't see anything in the article that was "sensationalized".

Everything I read was consistent with either personal firsthand experience or what others in the profession of drug treatment have relayed to myself or other family members.

Drug treatment professionals wince when told that someone I love is hooked on meth.

Simply put, if someone doesn't stop - they will die. And it doesn't take years of use.

I'm grateful for any MSM coverage - especially since the Bush administration has labelled meth as a "lesser threat".

[evermind]

38. Yeah, I've seen chronic speed use close up - not pretty

When he came down, the guy couldn't talk or do anything but shiver for 3 days, then when he came to talking he was paranoid and raving for a few months afterwards.

I'd never touch it having seen that.

[AuntieM1957]

41. that describes pretty closely the behavior

we saw the last time we got our addict in detox.

Slept for days, low motivation and depression.

Loss of memory may be permanent.

The addict stayed off for about a month - and is using again now.

It's a horrible drug - and I hate it.

[barb162]

74. I agree there was no sensationalism in the Newsweek article

The pictures were gruesome, but clinical, and if the photos stop some kid from starting meth, that would be good

[barb162]

72. that was a good article and the pictures sure made me think twice

Did you notice the article started out with a woman in Burr Ridge, IL a VERY wealthy suburb of Chicago. It's not just a rural problem like some people think

[hedgehog]

36. I think the problem is the dosage involved.

I compared the dose for a hit as per the Newsweek article to a typical medical dose given for ADHD or narcolepsy. I think the addicts are taking about 50x the daily dose to get a hit. All the problems (except for the rotting teeth) listed for meth are listed as signs of overdose. CAn someone confirm this theory?

[AuntieM1957]

39. Here's how it was explained to me

the "hit" or "high" of meth is short-lived. And the cycle spirals downward.

The more you use, the shorter the high. Also, the less intense the high.

So the user uses more and more faster and faster.

Binges/excess that last days are not uncommon.


I do not believe that it is a drug you can do a "little" of, and stay off it. The pharmacology of this doesn't work that way.

[barb162]

73. I am pretty

dumb on all drugs but doesn't heroin and cocaine and just about all the others work the same way...you just gotta keep using more to get the same high

[Mizmoon]

12. Alcohol is the worst drug I've ever seen

If you use it while you're pregnant your baby is guaranteed to be seriously damaged.

Just thought I'd mention that.

[AuntieM1957]

40. Alcohol can takes decades to kill the addict

meth kills much more quickly.

If you think alcohol is the worst, pray you never meet meth.

[Mizmoon]

42. Ever heard of a kid overdosing on alcohol at a college party?

Ever heard of one ODing on meth?

[AuntieM1957]

47. I don't know why you want to be adversial

but yes, I've heard of someone poisoning themselves with alcohol.

And yes, I know of many more that OD'd on meth. Two people in my social circle have lost family to it. Both from good families, but they were unable to save their addicts.

But thanks for your warm, caring attitude when I've mentioned here repeatedly that someone I love is addicted to meth.

Give it time - unless someone in power gets awake about the risks of meth, you, too, may be lucky enough to have firsthand experience of it's power.

Your short-sightedness about alcohol is much like the Bush assertion that pot is the real problem.

[Mizmoon]

50. I didn't read that

and I apologize for hurting your feelings. I did think this was just an offhand a conversation when it is anything but ...

What I was trying to get at is this: every ten years or so authorities decide that some illegal drug is 'destroying the nation' and they deny the rest of us our rights because of it.

In the 40s and 50s it was marijuana
In the 60s it was speed.
In the 70s it was heroin.
In the 80s it was crack-cocaine
In the 90s it was snortable heroin and oxycontin.
Now it's meth (which I had heard of in high school - some years ago - so it's not new)

They use it to scare people into surrendering their rights when they condone alcohol, a massively damaging substance that causes as much if not more agony.

Of course that's all abstract when you're living it. Again, my apologies.

[mikeytherat]

52. You missed two!

80s-90s -- PCP

90s -- Ketamine, or "Special K"

mikey_the_rat

[T_i_B]

53. 90's?

I thought Ecstasy was the "90's" drug. :shrug:

[Mizmoon]

54. oh yeah, the raver thing

I forgot about how all the kids were going to turn into goths and suck their parent's blood just before they dropped dead from X :)

[T_i_B]

55. Goths?

E is hardly a Goth drug. The thought of all those Goths going all lovey is quite a funny one though.

[Bosso 63]

14. Meth is the Walmart of drugs. It makes everyone its bitch.

It starts out in the rural areas, where its dirt cheap and now its moving in to the cities and up the socio-econ scale polluting everything it touches. The people who make this crap are filling up burn units and leaving a wake of toxic waste sites and neglected/abused kids. I agree drug laws don't seem to be working, but something has to be done.

[Boomer]

15. this drug epidemic is no joke

And it hits home, too.

Turns out a guy on our street had turned his RV into a meth lab. Kids from all over the neighborhood had been in and out of that vehicle, which he parked on the street, playing with his young son.

When he was finally carted away the police, they had officers in hazmat suits dealing with the interior! The same interior that the kids had been treating like a playground.

[Roon]

18. They need to change the drug laws

I think they should legalize pot but make meth posession five years mandatory jail.

[leesa]

21. And what would be the point of spending 5 years in jail?

[Roon]

26. Meth is very addicting

The only cure for meth is death. Five years in jail might be enough to wake up some of these meth heads.

[High Plains]

27. Oh, give me a break

Despite all the hype, meth is about as addictive as any other drug. Somewhere between 10% and 20% of users might develope a dependency problem.

Meth users are also as likely as any other drug users to get off the drug through drug treatment.

There is no "meth epidemic." Look at the Monitoring the Future, National Household Survey, and Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) figures. They are all essentially flat on meth for the last five years or so. In the past decade, there has been a big increase in meth lab busts (remember these "labs" are often nothing more than a bunsen burner and some tubing). I think a lot of people are confusing the rise of home-cooking with rising meth use rates, but that's not the case.

I used that shit in the 1970s when I was going to college and working at a slaughter house. I walked away from it. Most people walk away from it--without prison or treatment or any of that shit.

Legalize it. There goes your home meth lab problem. If people commit criminal acts because of their meth use--child abuse, child neglect, assault, whatever--arrest them for their criminal acts.

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. I used it in the 70s too

But the stuff they are cooking today is NOT the same. I won't go in to details, but I know for a fact it's very different.

We also didn't blow up houses by cooking the stuff in the 70s. Another significant difference.

And everything I have read says meth is the most difficult street drug to kick. I have seen first hand how damaging it is.

I am in favor of legalizing pot, heroin and cocaine. They all come from plants. But meth - a drug chemists have created - should never be legal, IMO.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[trekbiker]

61. I dont think this crystal meth is the same

stuff that we had in the 70's. I remember speed, crank, beans, etc.. I dont remember anyone smoking Meth. It might be like the difference in snorting coke in the 70's and smoking crack in the late 80's. Smoking crack was far more addictive and destructive than snorting regular coke (though that was pretty bad and destroyed a few friends of mine at the time).

[jayfish]

62. No More Addictive Than Regular Coke.

The thing with crack was that it was cheap. Because it was so inexpensive its user base was far more expansive than powdered cocaine. More users=more addiction overall.

Jay

[trekbiker]

65. isnt crack usually smoked??

I think the intensity of the drug is increased thru smoking it vs. snorting it.

I read or heard reports somewhere a long time ago when the crack epidemic was raging that addition occurred much faster with crack than with regular cocaine due to the drug being smoked.

there was a good report on NPR last week about the dental problems in prisons due to meth addicts. The prison dentists can barely keep up with all the dental work needed by the increase of meth addicts in the prison population. Apparently smoking meth etches away the enamel due to the acids in the drug. Also, meth addicts crave sugar and the favorite drink of meth users is Mountain Dew. twice the sugar content of other sodas.

[Red State Rebel]

67. Meth and Crack are not the same thing

Meth is highly addictive.

[shrike]

22. I spoke with a cop

who worked in drug investigations for years. He said, "There is no war on drugs. We're putting the wrong people in jail. Instead of mandatory jail sentences, there should be mandatory treatment."

[donsu]

23. agree - decrim all drugs - have mandatory treatment

real treatment.

but, here again, many of the so-called treatment agencies are a crime unto themselves.

america truly is a crime scene

[cap]

43. more than that... reform society

people are stressed out of their minds...

Decrease the stresss, decrease the need for drugs in the first place.

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. I agree mostly

but I would say it started in the cities. At least here where I live it was a huge problem in the city and law enforcement took care of it. THEN the cookers moved to the rural areas where it is harder to detect their meth labs. At least that's how it played out here.

[ernstbass]

24. All the while we keep throwing millions to combat pot

This is an outrage!! We are only starting to see the social costs of methamphetamine.

[firefox]

25. You mean billions don't you?

Legalized cannabis would go a long way into reducing drug use that is more harmful including alcohol. When Hawaii decided to get tough on pot, an epidemic started with Meth.

[High Plains]

28. Yeah, billions...

The federal drug war budget is about $20 billion a year (and those weasels don't even include the cost of housing all those federal drug prisoners--more than half of all federal prisoners) and the states spend roughly the same each year.

It's probably fair to assume that marijuana repression accounts for half of all drug enforcement--if not more--so we're spending about $20 billion a year to lock-up potheads. (Or we force them to go to drug treatment to avoid jail, and the drug czar then screams about how many people are in treatment for marijuana.)

Damn, what could we do with $20 billion extra each year? Heck, we could probably pay for a couple of weeks of the Iraq occupation, but there are more useful things, too.

[cyberpj]

45. Now it's 35 Billion:

By almost any measure, however, the war has been as monumental a failure as the invasion of Iraq. All told, the government sinks an estimated $35 billion a year into the War on Drugs. Yet illegal drugs remain cheap and plentiful, and coca cultivation in the Andes -- where the Bush administration has spent $5.4 billion to eradicate cocaine -- rose twenty-nine percent last year. "Drug prices are at an all-time low, drug purity is at an all-time high, and polls show that drugs are more available than ever," says Bill Piper, national affairs director for the Drug Policy Alliance, a drug-reform organization in Washington, D.C. Drug smugglers and South American cocaine growers, he adds, are fast developing new ways to evade U.S. eradication efforts. "All they have to do is double their efforts," he says. "They can adapt more quickly than the government can."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7504250

[cyberpj]

46. Have you read this article from Rolling Stone on this topic?

Bush's War on Pot
Forget meth and other hard-core drugs -- the administration would rather waste taxpayer dollars in an all-out assault on marijuana

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7504250

[ernstbass]

58. Thanks for the link

I feel sick after reading it - what an f'ing waste!

[cyberpj]

44. Forget meth and other hard-core drugs -- POT IS THE PROBLEM!

Bush's War on Pot (Jul 28, 2005)

Forget meth and other hard-core drugs -- the administration would rather waste taxpayer dollars in an all-out assault on marijuana

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7504250

[AuntieM1957]

48. Since Bush loved his "uppers"

I'm not at all surprised that he doesn't find the meth craze as threatening.

But he certainly tweaks like an ice addict.

well, well, well, well,

and no short term or long term memory.

paranoid

violent

Hmmmmm......

[noonwitch]

59. The only way for the government to make money off of pot is to prosecute

Short of legalizing it and taxing it, that is.

Cocaine, heroin, meth, alcohol, etc., help keep the rehab business moving.

[boredofeducation]

56. This crap is poisoning inocent people everyday

Non users are being poisoned everyday. Homes that were former Meth Labs are cleaned up, painted and resold to unsuspecting victims. Meth byproducts are extrememly toxic. Cleaning and painting does not get rid of the toxic wastes. The only solution is a total rehab of the home or tear down and rebuild. There was an article in People, that was about how families buy homes that were former Meth Labs, these homes were not in run down urban neighborhoods, but in nice suburbs. The new owners were getting sick, their kids were getting wierd sicknesses. They never found out about the home's previous history until months later. For every pound of meth made, you have about 5 pounds of waste. The waste usually gets flushed down the drains, dumped in the back yard, along the road or in the woods. Childeren are most effected by this stuff.

[Red State Rebel]

68. You are very correct

A person we know who is a foster parent had 3 boys in her custody who were from a Meth Lab. The two oldest hadn't been to school in 2 years as they were kept home to help and the toddlers voice box had been practically ruined from the fumes. He could only talk in a raspy whisper.

[DrBloodmoney]

57. Easy solution... legalize and regulate

It is what I will advocate time and again for any 'problem.'

Takes away the profits from the crime world, shuts down dangerous meth labs, identifies people who need treatment, use money for rehab programs and schools. Profits for big business.

It would be quite the elegant solution.

People will always use psychotropic drugs. It is a fact, that history has borne out, for time out of mind.

The question is: who do you want to have oversight over it... the government or the crime bosses.

Hard time without treatment is an asinine answer to the problem. Suggesting that solution demonstrates naivete and ignorance with regards to people with addictive diseases (alcholism or hard drug abuse).

My position has always been: don't punish users, provide safe access to drugs AND treatment, take profits away from the crime scene, and provide harsh punishment to anyone providing drugs to persons under the age of 18. And tax the hell out of it.

Quotes I like from that Rolling Stone article:

Since 1992, according to a recent analysis of federal crime statistics by the Sentencing Project, arrests for marijuana have soared from 300,000 a year to 700,000. The government spends an estimated $4 billion a year arresting and prosecuting marijuana crimes -- more than it spends on treating addiction for all drugs -- and more and more of those busts are for possession rather than dealing.

That's lovely

Pot now accounts for nearly half of drug arrests nationwide -- up from barely a quarter of all busts a decade ago.

That makes perfect sense.

I also enjoy how the ONDCP likes to point out that so many people have enrolled in rehab programs within recent years. That's a bit striking (because most folks don't consider marijuana to be an addictive drug) until you discover why they have enrolled. A very large percentage had forced enrollment after a possession bust. I'll try to hunt those numbers down

[jayfish]

63. And Free, Accessible Treatment To Those Who Request It.

I have never met an addict who was fond of his/her addiction.

Jay

[DrBloodmoney]

64. You can lead a horse to water...

Mandatory treatment doesn't work either. People have to want to get clean, or stop drinking, or whatever. But surely don't lock up non-violent offenders because they use drugs. Lock them up because they are abusive, or neglect their children.

[AuntieM1957]

77. Addiction is the disease

Unfortunately, it seems that an addict may change drug/habit of choice, but not cure the disease - addiction.

I can't bring myself to agree with you about legalizing these drugs. But for the first time, I'm thinking about it. I don't think that Legal Pushers (corporations) would be any more beneficial to their customers than the street pushers. But the light of day might be.

What I do like about the idea of legalization is that we could tax it. And use the money to fund treatment centers.

I'm told that jail for users doesn't work - because there are just as many drugs in jail/prison as out - and the likelihood of getting clean inside is far less than outside. This not from an expert, but from a young woman (23) I met the last time my addict was in detox.

So I'm not in favor of jail time for users either.

But for the pushers, hell, I'd almost go along with capital punishment. Almost.

[Red State Rebel]

66. My daughter just came home from Rehab because of Meth

You have NO idea what this is like. It is extremely addicting and very damaging to your health. To finance her habit, she stole a book of checks from me and forged them.

I'm the one that called the police and had her arrested, now we have been dealing with the aftermath ever since and it's been a nightmare.

There are real people and real families who are victims of this. It is not a "made up" problem.

[Skittles]

69. I hope you get her back, Rebel

I hope you get your girl back one day, the way she used to be

[Red State Rebel]

70. She's getting there....

Right now she is in the process of going to a halfway house. She's going to church and working the program - so far so good.

[Skittles]

76. excellent

and she has a great mom on her side rooting for her :)