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A few of us who have worked on the life or meth
campaign went to a drug treatment center to talk to
meth addicts.
They were happy to talk to us, in hopes that by
hearing their stories, other people would stay away
from meth. Their stories aren't pretty, so we didn't
tidy up the writing in the stories either. We're
presenting our notes here pretty much as we wrote
them down right after talking to them.
Here's the cast of characters (with changed names)
and their ages:
Julie - 32
John - 19
Christy - 19
Mary - 46
Ann - 47
Ann
Picking - she was in the bathroom, looking at the
mirror, picking at her face. The face in her head said
she needed to. Her own thoughts were "I should get
out of here" so she turned to leave, thought she was
leaving, and 30 seconds later found herself back in
front of the mirror, picking.
The drug is an iron mask you carry around. You use
it to hide from the real problem - what happened to
you.
Her dad and uncle sexually molested her when she
was a girl.
After a while, her brother said he had something
that would help her forget the pain. Meth. She got
hooked, then blackmailed her dad and uncle for
money (threatening to tell someone what they were
doing to her) to buy more meth to help her forget
what they were still doing to her.
Married a man who cooked it. He forbid needles. So
she would hide it by shooting up in her tear ducts or
her clitoris. He would almost beat her to death if
she used a needle.
She had lots of meth, because her husband
cooked. She was going to sell a huge amount, but
not all of the meth she had. So she took the
money, and they came over for the meth, but she
denied having the meth or the money, even after
they pointed a gun at her head, because she was
more afraid of running out of meth than she was of
the gun.
Mary
17 years since her last straight Christmas - with
kids and grandkids, couldn't remember the last
Christmas she was straight. 4 or 5 years went by
that she doesn't even know what happened.
She cooked it - she had her soldiers that went out
and sold it for her. Even though she had kids in the
house.
Over-amped.
4 days and 4 nights she was up, was getting tired,
shot another half a gram, went out to the living room
and strobed for 30 or 40 minutes (strobe - eyes
darting back and forth rapidly)
Went through house, bumping on everything,
walked out on porch, inhaled fresh air, and fell
straight on her face.
She died 10 times during the night, and was revived
each time. Her friends walked her around, trying to
wake her up.
She remembers regaining consciousness several
times, and the last time she came around, they
were trying to blow another half a gram in her
mouth. Her friends just thought she was tired, and
needed some more meth.
Said she doesn't see her family any more. When
they hold a gun to your head trying to get drugs,
you don't talk to them anymore after that.
Julie
Her husband was on meth, and was beating her up.
He would punch her, her daughter would be
watching, and then he would say, "I didn't hit her.
You saw me (to the daughter). I didn't do anything,
did I?"
Up 4 days cutting firewood, on meth. Driving around
mountain in a truck. Saw strange rock formation,
thought it looked like a combo bear-cat. Her skin
was crawling, and rocks appeared to be "evil
guardians." Husband was threatening to drive off cliff
to kill them both.
A friend of hers got shot by her boyfriend. They
were both tweaking, and he said, "I'll bet you can't
even shoot yourself right," and put the gun in her
hand. But she could.
Over-amping - "whole body exploding pore by pore."
Knew a friend who lost their baby at birth, because
she tested dirty for meth, even though she hadn't
used. The baby was healthy. They figured out that
she had meth in her system because her husband
was cooking it, and she was packing his bindles,
so it got in through her skin.
Her daughter knew all this stuff, and it still wasn't
stopping her from using meth.
She was walking down an alley, and could tell by
the smell that a house was a meth lab.
When I asked how you could tell if a house was a
meth lab, they all said that you just know.
John
He was smoking weed with friends and older kids.
He was trying to be cool. He did this for awhile, but
once some other guy was there, with something
else. He asked, "Are you gonna tweak with us?"
John didn't know what he meant, but he said,
"Sure." They put the crystal in the glass pipe, and
smoked that. From then on that's all he wanted.
He started dealing. A friend of his was cooking it.
They were up 4 or 5 days, tweaking, and the guy
who cooked it, but didn't use it, was still up with
them. He asked him how he stayed up, if he wasn't
on meth. He said, "The money make me high" with
a big ass smile. (The other women added that he
probably was getting meth in his system through
his pores by touching it, and cooking it.)
Said when he was tweaking, he would take apart
his stereo system, and add new components.
"You have to keep your hands busy when you're
tweaking, or you'll start picking at your face or your
ass."
He moved in a new house, and a friend of his
remembered that it had once been a meth lab. He
said that he used to stash stuff down there, so they
spent hours tearing apart that basement, looking for
more meth.
Hot rails - caused him to overamp. Get effects of
sniffing and smoking. Walked in bathroom,
splashed cold water on his face and passed out.
His friend woke him up, and he didn't know how
long he'd been out.
His friend who always carried a gun, shot at a guy
who was dating his old girlfriend, then came over to
J's house, and dropped off the gun. He took the gun
and threw it in the river before the cops came over.
But then they found meth on him, and arrested him.
That's why he was in the center.
Christie
Cleaned her house for twelve hours, to keep her
hands busy. Started because boyfriend cooked and
used.
Said one time they were tweaking in the car, looked
out, and the trees were turning into snakes.
Got busted for not having a license plate on the
front of her truck. Had three-quarters of a gram on
her.
All of the addicts said they couldn't say they
wouldn't do meth again.
How to Spot Signs of Drug Abuse
Glossary of Drug Terms
What is METH?
For Short Term & Long Term Effects Click Here
For Teens
If your love one is using drugs..... Info from lifeormeth.org
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