Methamphetamine Scourge Sweeps Rural America

Reuters (via Yahoo) ^ | Jan 29. 2005 | Alan Elsner

[palmer]

Tampering with evidence is also a crime.

As a group our HOA has enough legal savvy not to do that. As individuals we can and have confronted antisocial behavior in our immediate area. In those cases we made it clear to the people involved that we didn't tolerate their behavior. They were furious and threatened us, but we were prepared to defend ourselves and our property if they crossed the line.

[Puddleglum]

Very moving post, Mercy. Makes me want to keep a closer eye on my kid (well, he's only 3, but the habit has to start early).

[BigSkyFreeper]

Need to have the same regulations for meth that they used to have for crack otherwise this is going reap the same whirlwind.

Absotively.

[blaze]

You are, what we call, in the world of recovering alcoholics and addicts, a normie! Normies don't get it, a normie will put down a half glass of beer, and leave the bar,after having one or two. I can't for the life of me, on the other hand, figure out why a person would only want to have a drink or two... or a couple hits of a joint...or a line of crank... or one peanut.. or one potato chip. It's just not in my vocabulary! Been clean and sober since 8-16-94. Still haven't licked the potato chip and peanut problem!

[Jimmy Valentine]

A doctor of my acquaintance (anesthesiologist)tells me that Meth changes the chemistry of the brain. Once you are down the road there is no coming back from the addiction. Spooky.

regards,

[e p1uribus unum]

I'm a "normie" too and I think that is part of the problem in dealing with drug takers.

For someone like me, who wakes up full of energy and happy, there is nothing a street drug can do to make us feel better.

We don't really understand what addictable people go through. I see you all as having a form of metabolic disorder that you self-treat (inappropriately) with street drugs.

I don't know the solution, but looking at the numbers being presented, I don't think standard jail will work in the long run. There just isn't enough money to pay for it.

What would you suggest?

[Graybeard58]

You wouldn't be from around Kennett would you? That is the part of Missouri I was refering to in post #46.

I am from New Madrid County, Missouri originally and you are right, there's nothing new about the problem. It's not a recent thing. Farmers have had their ammonia under lock and key for a long time.

[Katya]

"In thousands of cases, people have been caught cooking the highly toxic chemicals in homes where children were present, breathing the poisonous fumes."

In many cases these labs are set up in rental housing. The landlord may or may not be a slum lord, and tries to rent or sell the property after the conviction/eviction of the tenants. One problem... they're stuck with an environmental hazard and toxic clean up.

[wita]

How about for user and producer if you are going down that road, but then its a short ride anyway for the user, because if you use, you gonna end up dead or wishing you were.

[Paul C. Jesup]

I have a modest proposal: the DEATH PENALTY for anyone producing significant quantities of methamphetamine.

So you would have us execute every U.S. citizen on Earth, because government would judge a person of "producing significant quantities of methamphetamine" by solely having the ingredients to producee methamphetamine, which is found in every kitchen in the U.S. And since government comes after people for being a penny off on their taxes, I have no doubt this would be the case if your idea was implemented.

[Fresh Wind]

Lemme guess...you want the government to produce their own meth/crank/ice to put the mom-and-pop operations "out of business". Do I have this about right?

I went through this on another thread with some other meth apologists. You're right, that's exactly what they want. This is what I learned:

They want the government to oversee the distribution of meth and they want the proceeds of this trade (via taxation) to fund social programs and health care.

So, on the one hand, they want you to believe that legalization will lower the price so that addicts won't have to steal to support their habit, but they also want the government to tax the stuff which will keep the price high.

They also want you to believe, once meth is legalized, that the users will be a threat only to themselves. They don't want you to think about the long term effects of meth on those who don't manage to kill themselves, effects that last long after the actual use of the drug ceases.

They want you to believe that government control will make meth "safer". Some of them actually believe that the problem will solve itself because the users will kill themselves off more quickly, but they want you to believe that the "safer" government-approved meth will make it harder for users to OD.

This safer product they want is actually pharmacueutical-grade meth, which has been available for years as a prescription drug, but now they want to get it over the counter.

And, sooner or later, they will make you remember what a monumental failure Prohibition was.

[ladylib]

She looks as if she's been poisoned sort of like Verushenko (sp?).

[techworker]

I just hope they don't use this as an excuse to ban ephedrine hcl. They already made it a pain by banning Ephedra however the synthetic equivalent (Ephedrine) is still legal. (Primatene tabs for instance).

I take Ephedrine/Caffeine tablet three times per day. By the way there is a lot research that indicates Ephedrine is quite safe so spare me the stories. The reason Ephedra based products were banned was because vitamin companies were involved and not manufacturing their diet products safely.

[Hardastarboard]

Meth users rarely show any common sense and act upon emotions.

Boy, the sound just like liberals.

[Condor51]

***We used to take it orally... People that shot it up didn't live very long. This was in the sixties. Some got killed in the war, but a lot more got killed doing drugs.***

I believe back then the speed was different than today's 'version'. IIRC it was an actual medicine "amphetamine" not 'crystal meth' or methamphetamine. There was benzedrine (white pills) and dexedrine (green pills). But YES, those that shot up didn't live long (it was called 'skin popping', they didn't 'main line' the crap).

Anyway, I knew two guys (not close friends) that died as speed freaks. One I went through Elem & HS with (Gene - he was found dead in a box car), and Frankie was on my Little League team - he just 'overdosed' (his heart 'gave out'). Then were the guys I knew that OD'd from 'horse', but that's a different subject.

And during those wild days of the 60's an 'older guy' (about 27) gave use 'youngsters' some sage advice; "Never trust ANYONE that sticks a needle in their body". I still 'live' by that sage advice.

[I_dmc]

Counter-proposal: Death penalty for anyone convicted of killing another person due to driving drunk, as opposed to the year for manslaughter they usually get.

[LibertyRattlesnake]

To Mr. Mojo:
Thanks for the post - while I don't know if you agree or disagree with the article's viewpoint, living in a relatively liberal area, our meth propaganda is toned down a bit from what the rest of the nation's getting.


The Reuters article mostly quoted DEA stats; unfortunately, I can see at least one inaccurate statement right off the bat. While methamphetamine can and does cause paranoia in many users, this is part of the *high*, not the *withdrawal*. Meth users coming down do feel a strong urge to do more, but the DEA's exaggerating the strength of it, probably in an effort to scare people away from it. This is counterproductive, as it makes it harder for any user who *does* believe what they read to quit, and it makes negative statements about drugs look like they're *all* false to another segment of the population.


To everyone: are you all sure you're talking about methamphetamine users? I've met a fair number of them. Of those, most have had opportunity to steal from me, and only ONE ever has. (And, to tell the truth, that one's my prime suspect - I never actually found proof that they did it, so the total may well be ZERO.) This doesn't match up with the general tale of this methhead who gives his/her soul to it. The stealing-like-crazy thing, while I'm sure there are some methheads who do it, is a fault of the PERSON, not the DRUG. To argue otherwise is to open the floodgates to all manner of "WAAAUGH! My daddy beat me so I had NO CHOICE but to rape that girl and hide the body in the trash!" idiocy. I suspect that that's where some of this comes from - the perp for some string of crimes argues, when caught, that the DRUG is responsible and S/HE couldn't do anything at all against it. Which is a load of bovine excreta, as they say in the vernacular, but, in some jurisdictions, you can get a jury to send you to Treatment instead of Prison by making such excuses. I'll bet that a few more of these methheads who steal everything that isn't nailed down and go back for the crowbar to get the rest are actually crackheads or junkies - crack cocaine has a stronger, short-lived compulsion, and opiate withdrawal is utterly hellish - it just sounds nicer to tell your friends "I'm doing CRANK!" than "I'm doing HEROIN!" or "I smoke CRACK!", so someone who does more than one is probably going to talk about the crank first. (I've met junkies and cocaine users with self-control, too, but speed users don't seem to be quite as screwed up on average.)


On government policies:
I doubt that much methamphetamine comes in from Mexico. There wouldn't really be any point, as the border crossing and extra travel would add enough risk to make any cost savings by using Mexican labor and bribed cops irrelevant. The DEA's 'superlabs', if they're not just a cry for more funding, are probably just a few zillion more methlabs scattered across America - it just sounds better to say "The border patrol's not doing its job!" than "we failed. give us money.".


The anti-methamphetamine advertisements in my city read like they were written by a meth industry advertising council. Most common reaction by tweakers, upon passing one of those ads? "It made me want to go out and buy some.". Should anyone wish to commit suicide, I suggest that that can be done very effectively by researching the government officials in charge of anti-drug propaganda efforts (incidentally, propaganda is the correct term even if you agree with the goals, and even if the statements in it are true; it's rather a shame that the word has collected so many negative connotations) until you find out which highly-placed government employees are collecting paychecks from the Feds for stamping out the drug trade and from the cartels for promoting it.

[kempster]

There is a company in Michigan that supplies low cost drug tests to parents so they can test their children in the privacy of their own homes. The idea is to first determine if there is a problem and then lead them in the proper direction to get help before it becomes a police matter. Just having the test in the home gives the kids "an out" with their peers knowing that their parents will be testing them. The program has been very positive in all the communities it has been introduced.

[RightOnline]

It's a HUGE problem in rural North Carolina, as well.