A Madness Called Meth: PROLOGUE

CALIFORNIA'S SOCIAL, MEDICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL NIGHTMARE

The little girl is 4 and wise beyond her years.

She tugs on the woman's bullet-proof vest. "I know what you came for," she
whispers.

Down the hallway in her mother's bedroom, she opens the top drawer of a
bureau to display baggies of methamphetamine, scales, homemade pipes used
to smoke the drug, and account books that document sales.

She describes in detail how her mother had smoked a pipe of crank that
morning and explains that she'd been sleeping with her mommy for several
days because the dog had pooped in her bed and nobody had bothered to clean
it up.

"People come to visit Mommy, and they bring money. It's green, and it has a
two and a zero," she says. "She gives them little baggies with white stuff."

Then the little girl with the long, brown ponytail and cherubic smile goes
off with a social worker to McDonald's for a Happy Meal, before heading to
the hospital for a complete physical.

Eventually, she will live the rest of her childhood with strangers. Her
mother will end up in jail. Or dead.

SERIES INDEX:

Introduction
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Chapter 1: The Family Who Cranks Together
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Chapter 2: Uncle Fester
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Chapter 3: Father Time
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Chapter 4: Beavis, Butt-Head And The Making Of Meth
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Chapter 5: Meth And The Drug Lords
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Chapter 5b: Walking A Fine Line
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Chapter 6: The Spiders
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Chapter 6b: From Small-Time Dealer To Big Time Cook
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Chapter 7: Users, The Stories Of Three Meth Addicts
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Chapter 8: Suffer The Children
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Chapter 8b: The Struggle Of A Father And Daughter
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Chapter 9: The Pit In The Barn
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Chapter 9b: A Homestead In Ruins
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Chapter 10: How Clean Is Clean?
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Chapter 11: Congress And The Pill Makers
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Chapter 12: Squeezing The Balloon
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Chapter 12b: "Life Or Meth?"
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Chapter 13: The Bust, Agents And A Dealer Square Off
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Chapter 14: Getting Straight
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Chapter 14b: "This Keeps Us Clean"
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Chapter 14c: Iowa'S Rainbow Recovery Center
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Chapter 15: Nicki's Road
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Epilogue
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Added by MAP:

A Madness Called Meth, Editorial
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1509/a02.html

A Madness Called Meth, To Our Readers
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1508/a07.html