Is It Time to Care about Meth?

Pundits in 2005-2006 pooh-poohed meth addiction as just uptight America’s latest drug hysteria, another finger-pointing distraction from more fundamental problems like, gee, maybe poverty? The extent of meth as a problem was hard to pin down and remains so. For example, in the part of the U.S. where I reside, in 2008, prescription drugs were a top drug of choice.

But a story similar to this one about meth’s threat to people and property in Scott County, Tennessee may soon be written about my town. This county is only 30 miles south of us and this town is fewer than 10 miles away. Our Chamber of Commerce is beginning to discuss the meth issue publicly.

• Off the record, sources say that nearly 100% of the burglaries in my locale are drug-related.
• Off the record, those sources also say that of narcotics arrests, almost 100% are meth-related.

People may be using other substances, but it’s meth that’s getting them in the court system.

Off the record, I’ve heard officials express views similar to those of Blake Ewing, published in Time, September 20, 2013:

“I work as a felony prosecutor in a town [near Austin, Texas] where methamphetamine is our biggest narcotics problem…Meth is pure evil. Meth addicts are often barely recognizable as human, and every meth user is an addict; there is no such thing as a casual or social meth user, at least not in the end. People who use that drug will generally continue to do so until it destroys their lives and the lives of the people who care about them.”

The suffering addict, meth or otherwise, is the focus of my one-on-one attention. But meth addiction has social, political, economic and environmental consequences that are increasingly insisting upon my attention.

The U.S. has a history of drug hysteria. But I think meth may be an exception.

1. Meth has an appeal over other drugs because its high happens fast, is really high, and lasts a long time. For users, meth makes business sense – one gets high value for one’s drug dollar when buying and using meth.
2. Meth makes one driven. The chemistry of the drug’s interaction with the brain makes impossible the process I hold dear – becoming conscious of one’s feelings and thoughts before making choices. No matter how many rational arguments I might make about why not to steal my purse – or worse – someone high on meth may have psychotic symptoms and be unlikely to hear me or heed me.
3. Meth production is toxic. Meth is so readily made from readily available ingredients that it could be happening right under our rental property tenant’s nose. Thinking about selling? A buyer can already Google how not to buy a meth house.
4. Meth byproducts are toxic. Taking a walk can result in injury or death? Side-of-the-road dumpings of meth byproducts like this one in Tennessee, this one in West Virginia and these in Georgia are isolated and infrequent. For how long?

Sensational terms like “staggering” make me roll my eyes. And the pass laws, don’t pass laws debate wearies me.

And yet. I researched this post to find out whether or not to care not just about the meth addicts that I may serve as an addictions counselor, but about the larger issue of meth addiction and its consequences as a citizen.

I’ve weighed the evidence. It’s time to care.

Once I care, I think, then I take action. I will share my thinking as I decide what to do and how I decide to do it.