HOW DOES METH USE AFFECT FAMILIES?

The following letter from the children of a methamphetamine addict
was sent to 4 th Judicial District Circuit Judge Mary Ann Gunn, who
runs the Washington County Drug Court Treatment program.

Once upon a time there was this guy that we didn't really know. He
didn't visit very much. But when he did, he always fell asleep when he
got there. He got mad if we woke him and he acted weird and shaky. He
didn't seem to like us very much. We couldn't go places with him,
not even to his house. He would lie to my Mom about where he was, and
what he was doing. They would fight a lot and he would cuss and call
her names that made her cry. We had to be careful what we did or said
cause he got mad real easy. We started thinking maybe it would be
good if he didn't even come back. Then he started doing the drug
program with Judge Gunn and he started changing. He stopped going out
with his friends and started being nice. Then Judge Gunn sent him to
Ft. Smith to a drug place for a while. We visited him on the
weekends. He is home now and he is awesome ! He goes to church with
us and helps us with homework. He takes us outside to play basketball
and football all the t! ime. He gets along good with our Mom and he
is always acting funny and making us laugh. Then we realized that we
knew this guy, he was our Dad. We are glad he is our Dad again and we
wish we could share him with all the other kids that don't have Dads.
Thank you, Judge Gunn for caring about our Dad to help him come back
to us. This has made a big change in our life. Thank You !!

Source: From the children of an addict, ages 9 and 12.