ONE INLAND COUPLE TRIES TO STAY CLEAN - DAY 2B

Being arrested for petty theft was a turning point for Kim Negrete of San
Bernardino.

It is Wednesday afternoon, and Kim Negrete is one of 10 people battling
addiction in a support group at the Inland Behavioral and Health Services
center in San Bernardino.

Her slavery to methamphetamine began almost 20 years ago when she attended
San Gorgonio High School in San Bernardino. Now 38, Negrete says she has
been clean since her arrest in April on a warrant for petty theft.

It started with a friend, a girl who offered the drug. Negrete was a shy
high-school senior afraid to try meth. But she snorted the white crystal
anyway. It was wonderful.

"I liked what it did to me," she said. "When I was using, I could get things
done. I could talk to people."

At first, it was just a weekend party drug. That changed.

She moved out of her mother's house and got pregnant. The snorting stopped
during her first pregnancy. But she continued to use through seven others,
unable to keep herself from harming her unborn children. "I know I was
hurting them. I just couldn't stop," she said.

Neither could Michael, her husband of nearly 20 years.

Despite his addiction, Michael had managed to keep a good-paying job as a
cement finisher before things unraveled.

Chaos finally descended about 10 years ago as the couple continued to use.
The comfortable home, the Ford Ranger pickup truck, the furniture -- they
lost everything to methamphetamine.

They spiraled deeper into meth use, shoplifting to support their habit. When
there was money, they bought speed and went to gamble at San Manuel Indian
Bingo and Casino near Highland.

If they won, they bought more speed, Michael Negrete said.

If they lost, any leftover money went to speed.

If there was no money at all, they went home and came down from their high.

Agitated without the drug, Kim Negrete would yell at the children.

The older children cared for younger siblings while their parents were away.
The children range from a 1-year-old to a 19-year-old who also is in
treatment for methamphetamine use, Kim Negrete said.Roxanne, 14, fidgeted
and fought tears as her mother spoke. She sat silently at first. When she
finally opened her mouth, words trickled out haltingly.

Until she started to sob.

Then, Roxanne's story flowed as uncontrollably as her tears, broken only by
gasps to catch her breath.

"All the time . . . we'd page them . . . and we knew they were at the casino
. . . and they'd never answer the pages," she blurted, tears washing down
her cheeks. "They used to take it out, sometimes, on us."

"I'm sorry," Negrete sobbed, wrapping her arms around the girl, squeezing
tighter and tighter,as if she could not get close enough. "I don't
know if I ever told you I'm sorry."

The changes began on April 19.

The couple was at the casino when police knocked at their front door in San
Bernardino to arrest Kim Negrete. One of the children reached them by phone.

When Kim Negrete returned, she was arrested. Michael Negrete loaded the
children into a van, and social workers took them away.

It was the best day of her life, Kim Negrete said.

"I was sitting in jail, and it was like a relief," she said. "I knew that
what I had been doing all those years was over."

Although Michael Negrete was not arrested with his wife, he also faced
charges for shoplifting merchandise. The couple said they served weekend
jail time after pleading guilty to petty theft.

Since April, they have been receiving drug counseling and attending
Narcotics Anonymous meetings and a family support group. Michael Negrete got
a minimum-wage job.

On Nov. 17, the children came home -- in time for Thanksgiving. Tears still
flowed, but a smile stretched Roxanne's cheeks as she described the
reversal.

"It's been soooo much better," she said, gazing at her mother. "Now, I can
talk to her like my mom."

"We're a normal family," Michael Negrete said. "We all sit down and watch TV
together. We all sit down and eat dinner together."

And there are goals, though some might not seem so lofty.

Once the family can afford a car, they plan to drive to the beach.
Twelve-year-old Michael has seen the surf only once. Before, the couple
said, they were too busy chasing drugs to make sure their children got the
attention they deserved.

"We made a lot of promises we never kept," Kim Negrete said.

The Negretes are not alone, but authorities can only guess how many families
suffer the same tortures. It's likely in the thousands, police said.

Riverside County prosecutor Tom Macomber and Riverside County sheriff's
Detective Marc Bender spoke about drug abuse at a La Sierra church in
October. After the presentation, hands rose into the air among the 150
middle-class, law-abiding churchgoers, Macomber said. Each had a relative
involved with methamphetamine.

"They were asking us, `How do I deal with my grandson? How do I deal with my
son's survivors?' It went on and on and on," Macomber said. "The whole room
had been touched by this stuff. It's a huge problem."