USERS LOSE MORE THAN WEIGHT

Two Women Lost Their Jobs, Were Convicted Of Felonies And Neglected Their Kids

Paula Cook thought using illegal methamphetamines would make her slim and
fit. It didn't.

"This is not a diet but a mind-controlling drug," Cook, 41, of Muskogee,
Okla., said after graduating in May from a residential drug treatment center.

Cook lost 25 pounds while taking meth but gained back twice that much
recovering from her 15-year addiction to drugs.

Bonnie Roller, 42, of Sparta, also began using meth to lose weight,
ultimately dropping 60 pounds. Like Cook, she stayed hooked on meth for 15
years. And, like Cook, all the weight she lost during her addiction came
right back after she entered a recovery program.

William Haning, director of the Addiction Psychiatry Residency Program at
the University of Hawaii's medical school, said of recovering meth addicts,
"Quite frankly, they are voracious."

"They might gain weight like an Iowan pig," he said. "But they feel better
in recovery."

Roller and Cook said their meth-related weight loss came at a higher price
than they ever intended to pay.

Both are convicted felons. Both lost their jobs. Both neglected their children.

Roller recalled leaving her four children for days at a time while rushing
from store to store to buy ingredients to cook meth. Her son, David, then
18, joined her on the buying sprees.

"It was a mom and son thing," Roller said.

On one trip in 2001, the two were arrested in Taney County. Roller served
eight months in jail for meth possession and possession with intent to
manufacture. Her son, who by that time also was hooked on meth, served
eight months for possession.

Cook didn't have any control over her meth addiction, either.

She lost her job as a police dispatcher and became the target of a police
sting after marrying her meth dealer, also an addict.

By that time, Cook had lost custody of three of her six children. She said
her younger children still have behavioral problems stemming from their
exposure to the beatings her husband gave her when they lived together. He
is now in prison for aggravated assault.

"Meth and domestic violence go together," she said.

Cook and Roller both have new lives now and are determined to stay clean.

Roller said that instead of driving around shopping for meth ingredients,
she drives her daughters to softball games.

"There is life after meth," she said.