Hostage Gave Meth to Atlanta Fugitive

Associated Press ^ | September 27,2005 | GREG BLUESTEIN

[Stone Mountain]

Hostage Gave Meth to Atlanta Fugitive

By GREG BLUESTEIN Associated Press Writer

September 27,2005 | ATLANTA -- The woman who says she gained the trust of suspected courthouse gunman Brian Nichols by talking about her faith in God discloses in a new book that she gave him methamphetamine during the hostage ordeal.

Ashley Smith did not share that detail with authorities after she talked her way out of captivity.

In her book, "Unlikely Angel," released Tuesday, Smith says Nichols had her bound on her bed with masking tape and an extension cord. She says he asked for marijuana, but she did not have any, and dug into her crystal methamphetamine stash instead.

Smith, who has been in a mental hospital and has flunked out of drug rehabilitation programs, says the seven-hour hostage ordeal led her to stop using drugs. She says she has not touched drugs since the night before she was taken hostage.

"If I did die, I wasn't going to heaven and say, `Oh, excuse me, God. Let me wipe my nose, because I just did some drugs before I got here,'" Smith told the Augusta Chronicle.

Police said Nichols took Smith hostage in her apartment March 11 after a shooting rampage at the Fulton County Courthouse. Nichols is accused of killing four people, including a judge.

Smith's 911 call to police when she was released led authorities to Nichols. She said she read him passages from author Rick Warren's "The Purpose-Driven Life" to gain his trust.

She was later bombarded with offers for books, movies and speaking engagements.

Financial details of the book have not been released, but she pledged to donate an undisclosed portion of the book's proceeds to a memorial fund for the victims.

© 2005 The Associated Press.

[Freebird Forever]

Take it from someone who knows, meth addicts make the best liars.

Nah ..... politicians. They can do it equally well straight, drunk or high.

[Sgt. Shlitz]

Oh great!! As if the fella didn't have enough
problems. Now, she get's him hooked on meth.

[spiffy]

Will 1/2 cc of insulin harm a non-diabetic?

[GovernmentShrinker]

Meth addicts are generally pathological liars when it comes to their drug use. I don't believe her for a second.

[over3Owithabrain]

I would guess that the authorities knew a lot of Ashley's tale was FOS. But they had their man and a nice PR story for the masses to swoon over, and to cover up some of the major screwups of the entire affair. So they either looked the other way or didn't look at all - intentionally.

[SJSAMPLE]

She was obviously inspired by the book, "A Crank-Driven Life".

[over3Owithabrain]

I like how the story says she gave up shooting the shiite the night before the "kidnapping", but the experience got her off drugs. Which one is it? How convenient to quit the night before an ordeal that you have no idea you're going to have and to keep your stash handy to pacify the perp.

Anyone who understands addiction knows her story is crap. Buying her book is akin to sticking the needle in her arm.

[Black Tooth]

I would guess that the authorities knew a lot of Ashley's tale was FOS. But they had their man and a nice PR story for the masses to swoon over, and to cover up some of the major screwups of the entire affair. So they either looked the other way or didn't look at all - intentionally.

Agree, in so far as the LEOs knowing where he got the meth that they found in his system. They had their wonderful PR story, and after all the bumbling, they were desperately looking for an ending like this.

Say, isn't this the story about the 55 year old grandmother they put in charge of guarding this guy, that nearly tore her head off before murdering a bunch of people?

[AlaskaErik]

Good thing he didn't come to my house. Strongest thing he would have gotten was a shot of Nyquil!

I'd have given him some Hydra-Shok therapy, with this being the delivery system....

[spycatcher]

The bigger scandal here may be that the Atlanta police almost certainly would have known pretty quick she gave him meth after drug testing him and interrogating both of them.

Do you think they kept that under wraps for feel-good positive PR reasons? Did they just not want to be seen as criticizing her Purpose Driven media spin? Or was it pragmatism? Imagine telling the public that is was actually a handy drug stash that kept her safe from a killer. Best to just let the Purpose Driven PR run wild.

[handy]

Crystal Meth Effects

---

Crystal meth effects an individual not only psychologically but physically as well. The physical effects of crystal meth include: heart palpitations, blurred vision, extended wakefulness, and damage to the brain, lungs and liver. Crystal meth effects the users vision, judgment, coordination, and reflexes as well. Crystal meth can cause automobile and other machinery accidents. The effects of crystal meth may last from 2 hours to 20 hours depending on how much is smoked. Crystal meth effects behavior as well. This includes violence, hallucinations, depression and psychoses.

Crystal meth's effects increases arousal in the central nervous system by pumping up levels of two neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and dopamine. At low doses, crystal meth boosts alertness and blocks hunger and fatigue. At higher doses, crystal meth causes exhilaration and euphoria. At very high doses, the effects of crystal meth can cause agitation, paranoia, and bizarre behavior. Physical crystal meth effects include increased heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature.

Anxiety, emotional swings, and paranoia are the most common psychological effects due to chronic use of crystal meth. Symptoms increase with long-term use, and can involve paranoid delusions and hallucinations. Violence and self-destructive behavior are common. Overdose is also a risk with crystal meth. Symptoms include fever, convulsions, and coma. Death can result from burst blood vessels in the brain (triggered by spikes in blood pressure) or heart failure

[radioman]

ROTFLMAO!!!
METH turned a violent killer into a submissive mouse!
How can this be? Haven't we been told just the opposite?
.

[over3Owithabrain]

A guy cranked up on meth ran down a crowd on the Vegas strip sidewalk the other day. Nichols probably killed all those folks in the courthouse in part to score his next high, seeing how he was likely without for a few days in the hoosegow.

Argue for legalizing drugs if you wish, but please don't glorify the stuff. It kills.

[over3Owithabrain]

Do you think they kept that under wraps for feel-good positive PR reasons?

Yes. The country swooned over this feel-good tale of beauty and the beast with some tent-revival thrown in. Took the attention away from the total breakdown of law enforcement and governmental authority that directly led to 4 murders.

[South40]

Since she was a user herself, I am guessing that she could guess what the effect would be.

That statement makes the assumption that the drug would have the same effect on all people. It doesn’t. In fact, for all she knew the influence of the drug is what made him homocidal.

[radioman]

Argue for legalizing drugs if you wish,

I won't argue for legalization. I believe the War On Drugs is as evil as the drugs we are making war on. If the people of your state want meth, alcohol or any other drug illegal that is their right. It is not the right of the federal government to wage war on a substance that people freely choose to consume.

but please don't glorify the stuff. It kills

I haven't glorified anything. I believe alcohol is a dangerous drug exactly the same as meth. I don't use alcohol or meth. Alcohol kills more people than meth. Alcohol destroys more lives than meth. How can you justify waging war on one but not the other?
.

[Protagoras]

I still say he knew this woman beforehand. He was jonesing for drugs frightened of goblins and on the lam and he knew where to find them safety. Her story was full of holes then as it is now. She help him hide a car when she could have called the cops, the mother ship, gave him meth dilithium crystals and made him pancakes a lift off personal jet pack. He surrendered because he wanted to, his jet pack failed and he couldn't reach low orbit, not because she converted him.

A nice tale was spun by two junkies a freeper with a vivid imagination.

[lupie]

As I recall, when he got to prison he became a Muslim.

[South40]

I doubt she had a choice.

The article said she dug into her meth stash and gave it to him. If he knew she had it he probably would have just taken it. He didn't know she had it she told him she did, so she had a choice.

[azhenfud]

As I see it, admitting to having had enough drugs to tranquilize a killer isn't as series as denying one inhaled....;-)