MORE WHITE WOMEN FIND METH, PRISON

Julie Bodine considers herself lucky. After all, she isn't in prison
- -- or in the ground. At one point, though, she could have been in
either place.

The 29-year-old Marshall County resident started using
methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant drug, when she was 16.
Then, she began dealing to support her habit.

"It's kind of like it's your friend, and then it holds you hostage,"
said Bodine, who began using meth to lose weight. "I got to a point
in my addiction where I just didn't want to do it anymore. It was
either quit, die or go to prison."

Bodine, who has been clean for three years, represents a growing
number of white women in Alabama and nationwide who have abused meth
to lose weight, get more work done or get their kicks on the
weekends, according to former users, researchers and counselors.

While Bodine didn't do time, anecdotal evidence shows more and more
white women like her do.

The Alabama Department of Corrections reports the number of white
women incarcerated in state prisons has nearly quadrupled in the
past 16 years, from 332 in 1990 to 1,225 in September. There is
little statistical evidence linking the increase to meth abuse
because the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center didn't begin
keeping statistics on meth use until 2003.

But "in terms of anecdotal things we've heard, I'd say yes" there is
a link, said Bennet Wright, a statistician with the Alabama
Sentencing Commission.

The number of white women charged with felony possession of a
controlled substance, which would include meth arrests, increased
from 293 to 642 in a five-year span ending in May 2005, Wright said.

Meth, a synthetic drug that is relatively easy to make using
over-the-counter ingredients, widely is considered a white person's
drug: Last year in Alabama, 66 percent of those charged with
manufacturing the drug were white men and 33 percent were white
women. The remaining 1 percent were black.

White men and women also account for more than 90 percent of those
charged with possession of meth, according to statistics provided by
the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center.

While white women represent the smallest number of prison inmates as
a percentage, their group is growing the fastest.

And use of the drug is exploding among young white women, even high
school students, said Dr. Mary Holley, founder and director of
Mothers Against Methamphetamines.

"They want to lose 50 pounds to fit into a pretty prom dress," said
Holley, a former obstetrician/gynecologist who started the
organization after her brother committed suicide while on a meth
binge in 2000. "I met one woman who got on meth so she could fit
into her wedding dress. It destroyed her marriage."

Most women start using meth to either lose weight or become a "super
mom," Holley said. "They don't consider it a drug. They sprinkle a
little of it in their coffee in the morning and think they can get
by with it."

Some eventually smoke it, inject it or deal it -- and that's when
they tend to get in trouble with the law, she said.

Though most women incarcerated in Alabama aren't there on meth
charges, their crimes might be meth-related, said Robert Jenkot, a
University of Alabama criminal justice professor who has researched
the drug's effect on women. Some crimes such as child neglect, he
said, might be fueled by meth addiction.

The rise in white female inmates also could be a result of concerted
efforts by police to fight the meth epidemic, Jenkot said.

"There's a lot of women using it -- not just to get high -- but for
the weight loss aspect," he said. "There's also been a lot of
reports -- especially out of Iowa and the Midwest -- of women using
meth for getting work done. To do everything that a good
mother should, they need a little boost, and if they get pulled
over with it or found with it, they're busted."

Five years ago, Gina Kennington did time in a Coffee County jail on
meth charges. Her sentence: six months for possessing, manufacturing
and trafficking. It got her the help she needed to break her habit.

Kennington, 42, started out smoking and snorting the drug, then
graduated to injecting it. She used the drug for about two years
before getting busted.

"Somebody had some one day and I tried it, got tons of work done
around the home and then I was hooked," she said. "It makes you feel
like you can do anything ... but it's absolutely one of the worst
things in the world I've ever done because it about killed me."

Now, Kennington tells her story to female inmates in hopes they'll
kick their habit. She estimated about 70 percent of the white women
in jails and prisons have had problems with meth.

Steve Box ended his bout with meth, which can cause extreme paranoia
and even hallucinations, after firing a gun in a Las Vegas hotel
room. The shot, which he says was an accident, landed him in jail
for attempted murder because his wife was in the room.

Box had heard voices in his head -- voices induced by a 16-day meth
binge -- that kept telling him she was a federal agent.

The attempted murder charge was dropped, he got straight and wrote
the book "Meth = Sorcery," which he sends to prisons across the country.

Now, the Missouri resident dedicates his life to helping others get
off meth by turning to Jesus Christ.

Bodine, the former addict from Marshall County, wants to do the same.

She and her husband, Jeff, also a former meth addict, plan to set up
a nonprofit center in Marshall County for male drug addicts making
the transition from prison to society.

The ministry, Stepping Ahead, will open in about 30 days. The couple
also plan to start a center for women once the men's center is up and running.

"God has just given us a vision," she said. "Getting on meth isn't
worth it. That stuff destroys your life and everybody around you."