Despite curbs, meth use spreading in U.S.

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - It’s cheap and provides a high that lasts for hours, even days. It pumps up the sex drive and makes users feel super-human. Methamphetamine is also extremely addictive and is plowing through the nation, from coast to coast and from city to countryside, leaving behind a trail of broken families and destroyed lives.

The disastrous effects of methamphetamine addiction have been well documented in the decade since the drug first became widely popular.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate stepped in, introducing a bill — modeled after several state laws — that would lock up the cold medicines that provide meth’s most common ingredient, pseudoephedrine, into cabinets or behind pharmacy counters in drugstores and require customers to show ID before purchasing the medications.

But despite the efforts of  the government and the heartwrenching tales of the destruction and pain that result from meth addiction, more and more people are abusing the drug. About 5 percent of the population, or 12 million people, said they had used the drug, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy report published in 2002.

For the fiscal year ending September 2004, the Drug Enforcement Administration counted more than 16,800 methamphetamine-related seizures across the country, up from 15,300 in 2002.

Why do people continue to use meth, even while watching their families, investments and dreams erode into nothing more than memories?  What makes meth so addictive, and what has drug counselors and law enforcement officials alike so scared of its power?

Lured into 20-year addiction
Tracy, 39, is an auto mechanic in Klamath Falls, Ore., a cattle-and-lumber town with a distinctly rural feel, located about 20 miles north of the Oregon-California border.  He started using meth when he was 18 years old, drawn into it, he says, partly due to growing up in an unstable home and partly due to a desire to escape emotions he didn’t want to face. 

His father left his family when he was 10, and he was sexually abused by an uncle for several years during his adolescence. The euphoria induced by meth, coupled with its ability to help him ignore uncomfortable emotions he didn’t want to acknowledge, beguiled him. 

“It made me feel like Superman,” he said.

INTERACTIVE Meth: Danger in the making Follow along to see how methamphetamine is produced in the United States

Tracy, who spoke on the condition that his last name not be used, was able to hide the first few years of his 20-year stint with the drug from his wife and two sons.

Even though he tried to limit his use of meth to weekends and special events, he became painfully addicted. He tried several times to give up his habit, but each time he seemed to be pulled deeper and deeper into the drug. 

Eventually, after 15 years together, Tracy’s wife left him and took custody of their two boys. Tracy lost his job, then his new truck, boat and his snowmobiles, and said he spent about $30,000 on the drug in 2003. 

“I had to have it to survive,” Tracy said. “I really, honestly wanted to quit, but I couldn’t.  I needed it to function.” 

Shawna, a 31-year-old hairdresser in Klamath Falls, first tried methamphetamine the summer after she finished eighth grade. She was instantly hooked and spent the next 15 years of her life addicted to it. 

“I loved it till the end,” she said. “Everyone I knew was doing drugs. When you first start out, it’s a good time.”

Like Tracy, she too grew up in an unstable home, where she watched a series of men parade through, trying to fill a void left by an absent father. 

She got pregnant her sophomore year of high school, and quit using meth until after she had the baby.  But the emotional devastation caused by the end of her relationship with the father of her child lured her to take up use of the drug again, and she dropped out of school and gave custody of the child to her mother. 

Shawna said that among the factors that sucked her into abusing meth were its easy accessibility and low cost. For kids growing up in lower middle-class families who couldn’t afford to enroll in sports or other after-school activities, bumming $10 from a parent and pooling it with money from two other friends could fund an entire weekend of partying with meth. 

In October 2004, the Oregon state administration passed a rule that requires customers to show identification and leave personal information at pharmacy registers when purchasing cold medications that contain pseudoephedrine. Law enforcement officials hope that restricting the availability of pseudoephedrine will cut down on the number of meth labs.

Klamath County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Nork said he believes this step will help the problem temporarily. However, because the people manufacturing meth are constantly finding new, faster, and cheaper ways to produce the drug, this first step won’t be enough, according to Nork. Meth use will keep increasing as the drug continues to become more readily available, he said. 

“It’s not going to get better,” he said.  “Only worse.”

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