Crystal Meth destroying small towns

[noshenanigans]

I live in Los Angeles but originally hail from the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. I left as soon as I could, but all my family is still there so I have managed to convince them I love the area but I can't live there. I still get the local small-town papers though, and on the front page this week is an article that they found 3 eightballs of cocaine in a grocery store parking lot. Apparently this kind of thing is happening a lot. I asked my father about it and his answer was "all these potheads out here are causing trouble" like there's a band of roving hippies putting crack pipes in kids hands.

There is nothing to do there. The nearest movie theater is an hour away and so cost prohibitive people barely go. There are no real "little league teams" as the sports run through the school so about only 150 kids in the county get to play at all (and they are so focused on high school football that's pretty much all they look for- so all the other kids end up sitting out in the parking lot doing nothing.)

Their answer to the crystal meth and pill problem is simply "Put in jail the people preying on our kids" but the small town drug problem is so, so much worse than that and is built on a foundation that needs to be changed. They aren't going to "get all the drugs off the street". If these people feel they have nowhere to turn, they can't get a job because the plants have all closed, and the answer they're given is "turn to God."

If I had not had the drive to get out of there, maybe I'd feel so hopeless I would turn to a cheap high, too. I don't know. But they don't even want to deal with the real societal problems that lead to a lot of that in the first place. That they can pop some kid with a quarter of weed in his car and call it a victory on "The War on Drugs" while there's a mom brewing meth in her house so then the house burns down and her kids lose everything they own... I'm floored by it.

I guess I just needed to get it out there... I'm so tired of people trying to cure symptoms and not the disease. I want to help, but I don't know how.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. The situation you describe has created a lot of well-known people...

People like John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Charles Stackhouse...

[GregD]

2. Siskiyou County, CA

I'm an hour south of the Oregon border. We have a County Sherrif who loves to jump out of his helicopter and raid pot farms, but this week I learned that there are 3 meth babies being raised by grandparents and other adult guardians on one street alone. That street has maybe 20 homes on it. Shocking! I cannot freaking believe how out of control the meth problem has become.

[azurnoir]

3. Meth is White peoples crack

It is the same meth is doing to rural, mostly white areas what crack did to inner city Black communities 20 years ago. The cause are also the same and so I fear will be the "solution".

[IndyOp]

4. I am sorry to hear about your home town.

We all have to do what we can to end the war on drugs...

Kucinich supports decriminalizing marijuana.

Check out "Law Enforcement Against Prohibition" -> http://leap.cc/

Keep fighting to fully fund schools, job-training programs, social services...

We have everything we need to solve the problems that drive most people to addiction - all we need is the political will to put them into effect.

Have you considered writing a letter to the editor of the paper you receive?

[noshenanigans]

11. Thanks, I have considered that

I wrote one before when I was in high school, about concealed weapons inside the courthouse, and I caught a ton of junk for it (when I was 16! No fair bashing a kid). I guess I'm just a little afraid because it's soooo small and so many people recognize my name and I don't want them to be like "who does she think she is?" Because I live in L.A. now. Ahhhhh, small town politics.

I'm coming to the point now, though, where I'm so tired of cowtowing to all that bull and I'm over being sad and now I'm just royally pissed off. A LTTE might be just the trick.

Edited to add that I think this area of NC is an Edwardsian microcosm of the haves and have-nots. One side of the county is full of tourists and people from Florida that have bought seasonal homes, and the other half are the people born there who are now cleaning the Floridian's houses.

[Glorfindel]

16. The situation is much the same in the Georgia mountains

In the small north Georgia community where I spent most of my life, single lots on mountaintops are selling for a million dollars while many of the native "hillbillies" live devoid of hope in run-down mobile homes. The job of catching chickens for poultry processing plants is considered a plum assignment. The problem of "crank" has been pervasive for many years, even leading to the conviction of the county sheriff, his chief deputy, and a county commissioner a few years back. The sheriff died in prison. I think the other two were eventually released. It was by no means uncommon to find discarded syringes by the side of the little country road where I lived. Meantime, there's a Baptist church at every crossroads and the county has always been overwhelmingly Repuke, even when the rest of Georgia was Democratic. I finally just could NOT take the hypocrisy and got out. I live in south Mississippi now. Things may not be much better here, but at least I'm not a native, and NOBODY expects anything of Mississippi anyway. If there's a solution to the crystal meth/crank problem, I don't know what it is.

[tenshi816]

30. Do you by any chance

come from anywhere near Gainesville? Or up around Toccoa? I've seen so many communities like the one you came from in that part of Georgia (my mom lived near Toccoa).

Actually, the same problems you mention are rife in Oglethorpe County, where my dad lives, and where our family has been since the late 1700s.

Pot has always been plentiful around there. Once, back in the '90s, some enterprising folks went deep into the pine forest that my dad owns, cut down a lot of trees - and I mean a lot, more than an acre - and started their own little marijuana farm. It was spotted by a DEA plane and one day a team of agents turned up at my dad's house with all-terrain vehicles and they all went into the woods and set the pot crop on fire - my stepbrother said he just stood downwind and breathed deeply.

Now, however, crystal meth has caught on in a big way and whenever I visit, I almost always see jumpy, emaciated people with bad skin and bad teeth when I'm out and about. I never get used to it. Pot smokers always seem so benign, but meth users are another story entirely.

[Glorfindel]

33. Northwest of Gainesville, Gilmer County

Former moonshine hotbed, succeeded by illicit drugs. Smugglers used to drop duffle bags full of cocaine from small planes to be retrieved by relatives of the county sheriff. The place is changing beyond all recognition as Atlanta expands ever northward, but the drug culture survives. :hi:

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

5. I went to high school in central W.V

and i know of at least 15 people from my graduating class of about 100 who have went to jail for it.
i've had to family members hooked. thankfully, they've been clean for 2 years now. break-in and thefts are rampany back home. it's pretty sad. the town is killing itself slowly.

[NashVegas]

6. I Left One of Those Small Towns

I don't know if there's a meth problem, but there have always been drug problems. There's a bar on every block, huge mj use among high school kids (I was one).

The lack of activity options (esp. supervised) + teen attitudes that the "healthy" things to do (athletics, clubs) are way uncool are the top contributing factors, IMO.

[panader0]

7. It's not just in North Carolina......

I'm in So. Az. and live in the country outside Sierra Vista (pop. 40,000). Crank (not crystal meth, which is more pure) is everywhere and has affected many people that I know in one way or another. I went through the 60's and did some things I wouldn't want my kids to do, but the crank is worse and heavier than that. It's a real problem everywhere, and not really a political one. Maybe people will grow out of it. The laws restricting the purchase of crack ingredients seems to help.

[Colobo]

8. What a terrible situation...

So many young lives are being lost because of drugs...

[HCE SuiGeneris]

9. Tucson, AZ -- has a major meth problem also.

The wages here do not support the housing prices and there is an ever increasing percentage of young adults escaping their situation through this hugely addictive drug. It is a blight, and I too feel overwhelmed at the loss of intellect and livelihood. :hug:

[illinoisprogressive]

10. small towns are not able to deal with drug problems and that is why the answer

is always Turn to God. That is because they don't know what else to say. Many are in denial of their small town with small town values being little more than a tiny city with urban problems admid suburbia.
It's sad. The town itself has to face down the problems and what are the causes. Boredom, left to themselves to entertain themselves, lack of any organization or even a community center.

[Hubert Flottz]

26. Brother Haggard turned to Gawd and meth both.

Gawd didn't stop him. If you're on that shit there ain't nobody gonna' stop you but yourself. Getting away from it and the people you did it with, is the best way to start quitting. Those kids need help not jail. Jail will only expose them to more criminals.

[madrchsod]

12. we had a problem here in ronnyland but the cops

went on the warpath and busted every meth dealer and cooker in three counties around here..now they are busting coke dealers coming out from chicago...they think the small town cops do`t know who they are...big mistake! it takes a lot of time and money to bust up meth.crack,and coke dealers and most small town police do`t have the personal or money.

[AngryAmish]

27. Hey, you live in Dixon?

I know folks frm Dixon. Some of them are named Dixon.

[madokie]

13. there used to be a lot of meth around here but I think its slowed down somewhat

maybe its that i'm not frequenting the places it is like I used to do back in my partying days, I don't know. I've seen it wreck many lives take a quiet a few too and it sucks big time. Each day I thank my lucky stars that I never liked it because with my addictive personality I would have been one of the ones someone like me reads about, if that makes any sense. Oklahoma passed laws a few years ago that makes it harder for the tweakers to obtain the precursors to making it and I think that is why I see and read less about it now. Theres a big difference between prior to the law and now, big dif. It definitely needs to be dealt with seriously for the good of all involved.

[valerief]

14. I remember all the crystal meth in the seventies. It will never go away.

Neither will the fact that Republicants will not invest in social infrastructure. They'd rather get the kids high, send them to jail, and use them as cannon fodder later as needed.

[Jonathan50]

15. The problem used to be moonshine in small towns

And it was damn near as bad as meth. Poorly made moonshine can kill you or leave you blind with one drink.

The drug has changed but the problem is still the same.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/misc/addictiv.htm

Relative Addictiveness of Various Substances
In Health, Nov/Dec 1990


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"To rank today's commonly used drugs by their addictiveness, we asked experts to consider two questions: How easy is it to get hooked on these substances and how hard is it to stop using them? Although a person's vulnerability to drug also depends on individual traits -- physiology, psychology, and social and economic pressures -- these rankings reflect only the addictive potential inherent in the drug. The numbers below are relative rankings, based on the experts' scores for each substance:


100 Nicotine
99 Ice, Glass (Methamphetamine smoked)
98 Crack
93 Crystal Meth (Methamphetamine injected)
85 Valium (Diazepam)
83 Quaalude (Methaqualone)
82 Seconal (Secobarbital)
81 Alcohol
80 Heroin
78 Crank (Amphetamine taken nasally)
72 Cocaine
68 Caffeine
57 PCP (Phencyclidine)
21 Marijuana
20 Ecstasy (MDMA)
18 Psilocybin Mushrooms
18 LSD
18 Mescaline

Research by John Hastings
Relative rankings are definite, numbers given are (+/-)1%

[noshenanigans]

21. well, that's a good point..

Barring the chart, at least, but that's a whole other issue.

My grandfather made moonshine. White Lightening, actually, as it was called (probably in the neighborhood of 180-200 proof). Since I've gotten older I've learned a lot of people around me had stills and such years ago. You know what though? When I'm at home, if I want to have wine with dinner I have to go to the next county over, because they won't sell it there. I know if I wanted meth, maybe coke, definitely oxycontin, I could get it there in probably 2 phone calls. But I can't legally buy alcohol. Man, that's weird.

[Jonathan50]

25. The chart shows that crank, snorted meth, is less addictive than alcohol

That's why I included it.

And most meth is snorted, not injected.

I did quite a bit of meth back in the early 70s and never became addicted. The only thing I've ever been addicted to is the intertubes. :)

[babylonsister]

17. I've heard this for years about small towns, and you portrayed the

major problem-no future-succinctly. Perhaps you need to write a LTTE outlining what might help; don't know if it will, but it couldn't hurt. Maybe the community could at least try to acknowledge the pervasive problem.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

18. I just got back from Flori-duh!

I was in an area near Orlando visiting my gf's folks with her and I couldn't believe just how in your face the meth problem was, it seemed like a good third of the white people we encountered just going into a K-Mart or gas station had METH stamped right on their forehead. I see the odd meth user in Southern California - but I felt like I had stepped onto the set of a zombie movie.

Every few minutes you would pass a burned out house or store front that had no doubt hosted a meth lab, it is the bleakest place I have ever been.

Just for the hell of it, I was thinking about trying to buy a gun just to see if it is easier to buy a gun than cold medicine,

[shance]

19. One has to wonder exactly who and/or what government entities are pushing this addiction/assault?

Nothing surprises me anymore.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is an intentional "cancer" if you will being created by folks that might profit from small towns being destroyed.

Something just isn't right with so much going on in our nation. And the destruction is not just coincidental anymore. People in power are feeding, igniting and inflaming the suffering and addictions of poor, hopeless and dejected folks in this country.

[John Q. Citizen]

20. Big pharma is the stumbling block to ending the meth problem. PBS has a great

series on Frontline on meth. Part of it examines how big pharma blocked a DEA agents plan to end meth. He wanted to use the same strategy that he used to end Quaaludes, which was to get the manufactures of the critical base drug to quit making it. Quaaludes disappeared almost overnight around the world. They haven't been seen since the eighties. The same strategy is possible with meth becuase ephedrine and psudo-ephedrine are only produced by a few very large and very complex manufacturing processes.

You can watch the series online or read about it. It's indepth and covers most aspects of the meth phenomina, from the history of the rise and subsequent widespead use of the drug, to it's phyiology of addiction, and US policy toward meth, all sorts of stuff.

Video #3 tells the story of the attempt and failure to end the epidemic by restricting production of the critical ingredient.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/view/

[pnorman]

24. I'd been looking for that series on meth-addiction, but I wasn't sure how to Google for it.

Thanks. It was truly scarey. The SECOND most addictive substance, and it's not being addressed to any effective degree.(The MOST addictive, nicotine, is relatively benign).

pnorman

[Jonathan50]

28. Snorted meth is less addictive than alcohol

Injected or smoked meth are both highly addictive but the majority of meth is snorted.

[John Q. Citizen]

36. How do you figure that snorting meth is less addictive than alcohol?

Do you have any data to back that up?

[Jonathan50]

37. Did you read the thread?

I already posted the data upthread.

[byronius]

22. Sacramento is the capitol of meth.

More meth production than LA, SF and NY combined. More postive meth-tests on emergency-room pregancy admissions than LA, SF, and NY combined. The Semi-Klan in the Foothills use immigrant workers to produce it, sending them out into the vast empty spaces of California with backpack kits. They sell it to white-trash kids and fund the White Supremacist Movement in California with the money. Citrus Heights and Orangevale are filled with meth-snorting fundamentalist religious zealots.

The effects are a terrible thing to watch. I'm a NORML supporter, no anti-drug zealot, but meth is the most destructive thing I've ever seen. Functionality for years, followed by paranoid breakdowns and withdrawal into slow death. I hate it. I hate the culture that goes along with it. What an incredibly empty drug.

[donheld]

23. Google "Crystal meth, small town"

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0405/p09s02-coop.html

http://www.craigdailypress.com/section/darkcrystal

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/109874_cowlitz24.shtml

http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17895869&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475626&rfi=6

That's just a start

[trumad]

29. My best friend lives in Discovery Bay, CA---

It's very affluent. He's my age, 49...and he says he got into it at the parties his neighbors put on... these neighbors were Doctors, Lawyers, etc.

He said the drug was fantastic but he gave it up because---well...it was toooo fantastic and the urge was becoming stronger to do it....

Me and him did a whole bunch of drugs in the seventies, you name it...we did it. So we know the early signs of addiction and we were always smart enough to stop before we indeed became addicted.

[sarcasmo]

31. Destroying small towns and Teeth.

[valerief]

34. So it's a plot by the American Dental Association! nt

[ncteechur]

38. It is killing the grocery and restaurant industries!

[sarcasmo]

41. One symptom of a meth head is bad teeth.

http://www.methmadness.com/symptoms.html


Edit for link. Teeth Rot about half way through the symptoms.

[sarcasmo]

32. Self Delete/ Dupe.

[Avalux]

35. I grew up in rural PA -

visited there over Thanksgiving after being away for years and I was saddened by the decline of my small town. It existed because of the Pennsylvania Railroad but there's NOTHING there anymore. My parents still live in the house they bought 40 years ago and won't leave. The other day, my mother called and told me there was this huge fire down the street from them; ended up being a meth lab in the garage that exploded. What you say is basically correct - if you don't get out, you stay there and rot.

[riverdeep]

39. Remember that movie 'Reefer Madness'?

We've had generations of authority figures doing a sort of crying wolf.
So much so, we no longer believe them. They said one toke of a joint and your mind would be altered beyond repair; they said use LSD and jump out of a window, etc. Now, here comes a drug that actually is devastating and can alter brain functioning with surprisingly limited usage, and no one believes it. Thanks Officer Friendly.

You might have seen this before, if not, a warning-graphic. Faces of meth:

http://www.drugfree.org/Portal/DrugIssue/MethResources/faces/photo_12.html

[benEzra]

40. Substitution effect...

from the war on cannabinoids, IMHO.

And I say that as someone who has never used mind-altering drugs. But our current policy of waging war on fairly benign things like cannabis, which drives people toward harder, easier-to-smuggle drugs like meth, is asinine.

[kdpeters]

42. I realize it's a small town, but the front page for a few grams of coke?

That's not much. This issue is hardly new. Three eightballs could just be someone's long weekend falling out of his pocket when reaching for his keys. That it's front page news seems to me yet another symptom of that misdirected focus you're describing. How can a whole town, of any size in 2007 have remained so naive for so long to be that surprised at a few baggies of coke? As you say, there are real problems -- everywhere. Are they really just now seeing it?

If I had not had the drive to get out of there, maybe I'd feel so hopeless I would turn to a cheap high, too. I don't know. But they don't even want to deal with the real societal problems that lead to a lot of that in the first place.

Most likely you would try drugs out of boredom or curiosity rather than hopelessness. As long as we're trying to have a mature conversation about drug use, let's not dismiss such a complicated issue as 'cheap highs'. Throughout human history people and cultures worldwide have sought out those things that alter their experience. It's always been that way and we aren't going to be the society that shames it out of existence. Confronting it rationally knowing there will always be demand is the first step in honestly analyzing the issue.

I'm like you. I grew up in rural Georgia, now in San Francisco. But I'm moving back. I can't wait. Really looking forward to see what waves I can make. :)