1990 
1995
A classic example of what using methamphetamine for five years can do for your complexion.
Posted on 06/19/2005 5:50:43 AM PDT by QwertyKPH
WASHINGTON - Whether it's smoked, snorted, swallowed or injected, methamphetamine is more addictive and more damaging to the brain than cocaine, heroin and most other illegal drugs.
It's also unusually efficient at ruining lives, ensnaring entire families and turning parents and children into addicts fixated only on their next euphoric high.
"If the adults use it, the kids are going to be around it and get roped in," said Dr. William Haning, director of the Addiction Psychiatry Residency Program for the University of Hawaii's medical school. "As crazy as this sounds, the parent won't necessarily see this as a bad thing."
Many recovering methamphetamine addicts say they were hooked after using the drug just once. They say meth took over their lives, destroying their ability to work and to function as parents
"If you want to lose everything in your life, just try meth," said Paula Cook of Muskogee, Okla., whose addiction cost her a job as a police dispatcher and custody of three of her six children.
It takes meth addicts between 12 and 24 months to fight back from their habit, longer than it takes cocaine or heroin addicts to recover.
And recent studies show meth does more damage to the brain than other drugs. A 2004 study by UCLA researchers, for example, showed meth causes "severe gray-matter deficits" in the brain - comparable to the damage apparent in the early stages of dementia.
"It erases all your feelings and rational judgments because it is so addictive," said Cook, 41. "It is not a recreational drug but a progressive disease."
Meth addiction is facilitated by a misconception - that it's safe to use because amphetamines have legitimate medical uses as weight-loss aids or to treat sleep disorders or attention deficit disorder in children.
"People claim that it helps them work better," Haning said. "It's sometimes easier for the family to legitimize usage."
But he and other experts warn that there's nothing safe about meth. The drug causes large increases in the brain's production of mood-enhancing dopamine, in some cases permanently damaging dopamine cells.
"It is one of the most toxic drugs to the brain, ranking high with gasoline inhalants," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Washington. "It lasts in your brain much longer than cocaine."
Bonnie Roller, 42, of Sparta, Mo., said that when she began using and making meth at home, she was determined to keep her teenage son away from it. But her addiction quickly destroyed any control she had over her own life and his. Her son also ended up hooked.
Both were arrested in 2001, Roller said, as they tried to buy ingredients to manufacture more meth.
"Meth will eat up your mind," said Roller, now recovering from her addiction. "I wanted to be a good mother. It breaks my heart that I wasn't."
Such stories have become increasingly common as the meth epidemic continues to sweep from west to east across the country.
"The threat associated with methamphetamine trafficking and abuse has increased sharply since 2002 and now exceeds that of any other drug," according to the National Drug Intelligence Center.
Meth's harmful side effects include psychotic and aggressive behavior, hyperactivity, paranoia, disturbed sleep patterns, irritability, shortness of breath, involuntary muscle movements, malnutrition and severe depression with suicidal tendencies.
"People hear voices, they become suspicious and can get extremely violent," said Rick Rawson, associate director of the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, one of the nation's largest substance abuse research groups. "Domestic abuse and neglect is a big problem."
Psychotic symptoms can persist for months or years after a meth addict has stopped using the drug, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Unlike cocaine or heroin, meth can be "cooked" at home using recipes found on the Internet. The ingredients used to make the drug can be purchased cheaply at a local pharmacy, although some states have restricted access to those ingredients in an effort to combat the meth epidemic.
Jody Gentry, 36, of Reed Springs, Mo., became so dependant on meth in 2000 that he abandoned his wife and moved into her car. That allowed him to spend all his time looking for remote places in the woods to set up his portable lab, cook meth and get high.
"All I cared about was me and my habit," said Gentry, now recovering from his addiction. "Once I tried it, I was hooked and thought about it every day."
1995 A classic example of what using methamphetamine for five years can do for your complexion.
Bad, bad stuff.
Wow! Excellent post. I live in northwest Georgia and meth is an epidemic here. A recent sting netted users, dealers, manufacturers, and a number of convenience store operators who had basically a "meth section" to sell all the ingredients needed for manufacturing the drug.
This is such a shame and sorrow. Thanks for posting this article.
I will never try this evil stuff because I have seen up close the results. It will totally screw up your life. No matter how invincible you think you are this will take everything you hold dear.
Have you ever seen the list of unbelievably toxic "ingredients" used to make that crap?
You'd have to be stark-staring mad to put it in your body.
Well I have seen this firsthand. I am in the middle of a divorce after 16 years of marriage. After years of suspicion, denial and lies I finally found crystal meth, crack pipes, propane tanks,needles and other drug paraphernalia among some of my husband's possessions. I had asked him in the eyes quite a number of times over the years if he was doing, or had done, any drugs since we were married and he said no. There were plenty of symptoms. Making money but never having any to give the family; not being able to hold a steady job; violence and abusive behavior; irrational thinking patterns; not coming home; sleeping odd hours; grey skin color; sneaking into the basement or the summer kitchen; finally, when things were getting really bad, hallucinations (packs of rats running through the house, people climbing on the roof, police cars following him, animals crawling on his body). We had been separated since 2002 but twice I took him back, and both times ended with police intervention. Right now the police are analyzing the drugs I found-- I looked it up on the internet and what I found does indeed look like meth. (There are corroborative witnesses who saw the meth, crack and heroin as well as the obligatory marajuana). After this last incident, I felt that the nail was driven into the coffin of my marriage. I hung on as long as I possibly could for the sake of the children. I can not pretend there is a marraige anymore. My trust is completely destroyed and I feel like the whole marriage was based upon a lie. I now see that he was probably doing drugs from the beginning of the marriage (there was also alcohol involved from the beginning). This was NOT what I wanted when I got married. If I had known that he was (still, after years of supposedly being clean) really a drug abuser, this marriage would not have taken place. Anyway my HINO was very good at hiding all of the paraphernalia from me for years. It was only until this last horrid episode that I found all the stuff-- apparently when they are readlly bad, they start to get careless. I have no hope for reconciliation though I hope we can ultimately be civil for the sake of our children. I have basically been a single mom for years and now I am in the final throws of the death knell: child support hearings, custody, protection from abuse order, the final divorce affadavit of consent. Papers which merely put a stamp on what is already dead (or never had life to begin with). So moral of story, yes, Meth among other drugs can ruin your life.... as well as the lives of those around you....
Let social Darwinism run its course. Society will be healthier if those who would destroy themselves do so quickly and without involving innocent by-standers getting hurt.
Sadly, this is actually James before and after Meth.
Tragic.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Bummer. Even the Okies from Muskogee are getting hooked on meth. Merle Haggard must be turning in his grave.
Well, yeah, that may work. In the 1990s, police in NYC called heavy crack neighborhoods "self cleaning ovens" because all of the crack heads basically killed themselves with drugs and all of the dealers killed each other with guns.
But the lessons learned there was that a lot more people than just dealers and addicts die. So, your Darwinistic strategy would impact a secondary tier of folks -- those who can't afford to absent themselves from the area.
Read Moby Dick, and your see the best description of Darwnism in literature.
Sorry to hear this.
your teeth get rotted out in unique fashion as well. I've been too busy living life to be doing that crap. There is still so much to learn. I am anxious after raising my children to get out there and get back to work.
Would you give me the source for the picture, please? I'd like to show it to my kids at school. Thanks.
On the left is Theresa Baxter's mug shot when she was arrested for identity theft and fraud. On the right is Theresa 3 1/2 years later, a meth addict, in her words like a zombie, one of the living dead.
Don't ever try it.
Would not be an issue with the Second Amendment returned to full strength. Crack head running amok with a machette? Don't run. Stand your ground and shoot him. Easy-peasy. All of this made a tremendous amount of sense before people started turning to government to protect them from themselves.
Why did they put the after picture first?
You think crack heads are like Gary Cooper in High Noon, where you get to face off against them in a fair fight? I don't think so. What they are more likely to do is come into your home while you're sleeping, beat you to death with a hammer, and then steal your stuff.
I drove through Decatur, TN, day before yesterday and the local Sherrif had a billboard in the middle of town with a before and after picture of what this crap did to a female resident of the community. Shocking.
Meth is a huge deal in East Tennessee. A couple of years ago they were busting a dozen or more meth labs a week in my area. Now, the state has mandated that over the counter cold remedies, which contain psuedoeffedrine, be moved behind the counter in pharmacies. This seems to have had a dramatic effect.
A real heartbreaker.
If you ever run into a buddy who is interested in Meth, take a look at this article. Look a the pictures further down. Heroin and crack are about half as bad but still get one there eventually. Sooner or later you will know someone at a personal level who gets lured in to drugs.
Becaus,unfortunately, most of these meth addicts are irresponsible breeders and the children ARE innocent.
Maybe they thought no one would notice.
.
M.A. Pinger.
And the police and a million and one laws are stopping this how? Will New York, or LA's, gun control laws make you safer? Will the newest Drug Czar be there to protect you?
In the meantime, we spend another trillion dollars on a problem that will never go away and the Bill of Rights gets shredded a little more with each new law added. Thanks for nothing. Your fear is part a symptom of what is killing this Nation.
"It's for the children." Where have we heard that one before? What next? "It takes a village"?
Very sorry about your marriage.
I hope that you gain the strength and inner peace to continue to be able to be the mother your children need. I can just imagine the pain and fear you must have been living with.
Another illustration of why legalizing drugs is not a good idea. It's not just one life that is damaged, it's the lives of those around the user.
Sadly, meth is huge in rural Arkansas as well. These people are among some of the worst cases I deal with, completely lacking in sense, conscience or compassion and never accepting responsibility for the messes they've gotten themselves into.
I think you have the pictures reversed...
I live in NYC and spent extended amounts of time in the ghetto during the worst of the crack epidemic. So, I know what I'm talking about. Trust me, this isn't a second amendment issue. Crack, meth etc. are one of those deals where you do what you can do. You fight the good fight and try to keep casualties to a minimum.
A lot of the time, the "friends" and family of these people are part of the problem. Are you suggesting that when we find small children in a meth lab, or with parents who are tweaking so bad they are leaving their children unfed, exposed to the elements or in the "care" of people who physically and sexually abuse them (common among meth addicts) that we just leave them there to be destroyed right along with their parents?
When people look at a horror they often confuse the expedient for the pragmatic.
I knew women in Hollywood who were doing meth, because it was cheap, they'd lose weight, and could stay up all day and night partying.
Two of them died within 5 years, a couple more became prostitutes, and most of them wrecked their lives - a couple made it out clean and sober, but paid dearly for it. (I was drug and alcohol free - have been since high school, when I lost all interest in any of that stuff on my own after trying alcohol and pot.)
Now, if I run into anyone doing that crap (or any of the heavier drugs like heroin or crack), they become instant ex-friends and I put as much distance between me and them, I've been on that rollercoaster too many times - I'm not a drug councelor, and I can't let them drag me down into their own private hells. It's coldhearted, but it's all I can do, short of telling them to seek sobriety through rehab - I can't save these people once it has hold of them, I don't know how. I don't know how the government can do much, beyond taking them out of society. Don't get me wrong, my heart bleeds for them - but I don't let them into my life.
People want drugs. How do we change that? Can we? I just don't know.
Jagman, meet Kenth. Kenth, this is Jagman.
Apparently great minds think alike.
I looked at the entire lsit in the previous post.
My husband started to look like that (see previous post).
Even started getting sores on his mouth and face, horrid grey color, losing weight.
I did not know what is was but I was not kissing him (blech).
I am so sick over the whole thing. Now I need to get an AIDS test and maybe hepatitis and what else I do not know. Who knows where he has been and what he has been doing.... all I know is I do not want some disease because he has been a drug user.
Those who pray, I would appreciate prayers for me and the children, thank you so much.
Oklahoma has a very serious problem with Meth. In my small hometown there was a meth bust on the front page of the paper every week. Now it isn't even worth covering, but if you look on the police blotter page it is covered with Meth arrests. It is very sad.
My youngest son has been fighting meth addiction - he's clean again and hopefully will stay that way since his girlfriend (thank God for putting her into his life) monitors his so called friends and won't let him associate with the druggies. Don't know how you put up with the husband's moods, etc. because they're frighteningly out of control when on that blasted drug - my son is over 6' tall and even on the drug was still over 200lbs so when he'd lose his temper he was rather impressive.
That is the most amazing and shocking series of photos I have ever seen.
Thanks for sharing.
You will be OK. I'm sure of it because you have faced the problem and have begun to work it out.
Thanks very much. And for you and you son as well.
Have had family go through the meth thing and survive. They are now counseling others. Also, in this small town in Arizona most crimes now are related to drugs. The city council has become aware that this is the number one issue. I don't know if chemicals are being regulated but hope so.
Gee, if only it were illegal, maybe police dispatchers wouldn't do it. Yeah, that's the ticket! Let's ban it, and make manufacture, sale, possession, and use illegal. That should solve everything!
I am a person on the other side of that equation. I wasn't into all the drugs mentioned, "just" cocaine, but my habit was bad. I won't try to justify what your husband has done -- there's no justification -- but I want you to see what it looks like from the other side.
When I first started dating my wife, I lied about my drug use. My intention was to have the marriage 'get me clean'. It didn't. I could not get clean for another person, nor did the marriage magically make me clean.
Since my wife was extremely adamant about no use of drugs, even to the point of marijuana, I found it impossible to broach the topic of getting me into a program of recovery. I'm not sure I'd have even been ready then.
When the marriage broke up, my wife knew that I was deceiving her, but didn't know about what. I finally came clean, and later, I asked this question: "If I had told you about my addiction before we started dating, after we started dating, before we got married or after we got married, would you have stuck with me while I got help?" The answer was "Probably not."
It's a fair answer. People have the right to make decisions on what character defects they will be willing tolerate as their mate works on those defects.
However, and in retrospect, and even if I look at it only selfishly -- something I don't do a lot any more -- she and I should never have been together.
I finally reached an emotional bottom more than two years ago, and fully surrendered to my addiction, and began seriously working the program of Narcotics Anonymous. I now have more than two years clean, and I am honored to be able to help newcomers and sponsees as they try to get what I have. My life is one of service, now, and I am delighted that G-d wants me to work His will, and is willing to give me the tools to do so.
I have many regrets from that time period. I am horrified that I damaged this woman, and deeply regret it. I've worked an 8th and 9th step with many people, including her -- those steps being "made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all," and "made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."
There's not much amends I can make to her, other than asking her forgiveness (which she gave), praying that she could move on and found a more appropriate man (which she did), and becoming of service to the newcomer addict (which is my most treasured activity these days).
So this is a view from the other side. In my case, I married because I hoped it would 'fix me'. Obviously, it couldn't and didn't.
Your husband is an addict. If he decides to get recovery, then he will not be a bad person trying to get good -- he will be a sick person trying to get well.
Leaving him is, of course, the only reasonable tack right now. However, perhaps, in time, you will learn not to hate him, but to hate his disease.
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