EFFECTS OF METH USE CAN BE DEVASTATING. - DAY 3A

Scientists say the drug may irreversibly damage the brain leading to
depression, suicidal impulses and schizophrenia.

Southern California's remote and rural terrain has long served as a
fertile breeding ground for the methamphetamine epidemic spreading
across the nation.

The region is now acting as a laboratory for teams of scientists
trying to figure out what the drug does to the body and how to help
people kick what can be a crippling addiction.

Although use of methamphetamine became common in the 1960s, not much
had been done to study the drug until recently.

Word is starting to get out about the research, and people don't like
what they're hearing.

Scientists say methamphetamine users often suffer schizophrenia, manic
depression and suicidal impulses. Worst of all, studies have shown
that the drug may permanently alter the brain.

"You have literally changed the landscape of the brain," said Paul
Brethen, director of the Matrix Institute in Rancho Cucamonga, a drug
research and treatment office. "Cocaine doesn't do that."

Studies also have shown that monkeys given just 10 doses of
methamphetamine suffer a severe reduction of dopamine, a body chemical
that allows one to feel pleasure, aids memory and boosts
concentration, among other things. Effects in monkeys have lasted two
years and longer.

That has alarmed scientists trying to find a way to help people battle
the addiction. Unless something is done, "you will see a generation of
brain-damaged people," Brethen said. "We are losing sanity and
destroying potential."

Inland Area A Test Tube

Because methamphetamine has such a hold on drug users in Southern
California, the region has become one big test tube for researchers.
Among the projects:

* Brethen and the Matrix Institute are spearheading a nationwide study
using the anti-depressant sertraline to see if it helps people kick
their addiction.

* Dr. Carrie Fisher, chief of West Coast operations for the Friends
Research Institute in Hollywood, is working with the Matrix team in
the Inland area to determine what effect methamphetamine has on
children whose mothers used the drug during pregnancy.

* In Los Angeles, a team led by renowned Edythe London of the National
Institute on Drug Abuse is examining the physical landscape of the
human brain to try to map the changes taking place.

All three projects should be completed in the next few
years.

Methamphetamine appears to cause long-term damage to the brain's
neurons, said Richard Rawson, executive director of research at the
Los Angeles Addiction Research Consortium, which oversees Matrix,
Friends Research and other programs.

Brain scans of longtime meth users show major damage to axons, which
are long, single fibers that transmit messages from cells to neurons.
They appear on the scans as though they were chopped off. The axons
may regenerate as much as two years after drug use has stopped, but
they grow back in mangled clumps, their shape and configuration
greatly changed.

The result is a change in brain wiring that may be permanent and can
cause delusions, schizophrenia and depression, say
researchers.

Rawson said a one-year follow-up on former methamphetamine addicts
showed many suffering from headaches, depression and anxiety.

"Even after a year, they are not fully back to normal," he said. "It
is real apparent to us (that) their ability to think was clearly
compromised much differently than those using opiates and alcohol."

The reason is that methamphetamine actually penetrates the brain
synapses while cocaine, heroin and low quantities of alcohol don't,
researchers say.

Meth Users Know Dangers

Those who work with methamphetamine addicts don't need studies to
understand the problems.

Clarence "Clancy" Miller sees the results of drug use every day as the
president of the board of directors of Dual Diagnoses Anonymous in San
Bernardino County. Miller helped launch the counseling program four
years ago to help addicts - mostly methamphetamine users - combat
their addiction and mental illness. The program, modeled after the
Alcoholics Anonymous program but geared toward drug addicts, started
in San Bernardino and has spread nationwide.

Miller, 56, works at Inland Behavioral and Health Services in San
Bernardino. He knows about the problem firsthand.

He was so hooked on the synthetic drug that he would grind his teeth
obsessively. The intense grinding over 21 years led him to chew
through most of his jawbone. The jaw was eventually replaced with a
piece of his hipbone.

Miller, who has been clean for 11 years, said his drug abuse led to
manic behavior and clinically diagnosed depression.

"Those who use methamphetamine are worse off than others - they are
more paranoid; they are fearful and have a sense of impending doom,"
Miller said.

In San Bernardino, Larry Sparger runs another Dual Diagnoses
meeting.

Sparger, 51, a ponytailed former rock musician, used methamphetamine
for 27 years and now suffers from manic depression and is on
medication. Like Miller, his illness did not exist before using
methamphetamine, he said.

"I have accepted the fact that I have brain damage," he said. "If I
hadn't quit, I would have ended up in a mental ward."

Prescription drugs stabilize his mood swings, but the Valley College
student says he still has little ability to concentrate and must read
a page four or five times to comprehend and remember it.

"I go through days with no concentration, some days not (being) able
to concentrate, so I just put down the book," he said. "When you are
high on heroin, you sleep, but with methamphetamine you literally go
crazy. You have 10 projects going, and nothing gets done."

Steven, a bearded man with a fixed stare, called the meeting to
order.

The 36-year-old former methamphetamine addict and diagnosed
schizophrenic read a prayer.

Then he launched into a rambling monologue about his life and
addiction. He talked about stripping off his clothes in the streets,
of attacking people who said something "that (didn't) seem right to
me.

"I have tantrum attacks all the time," he said. "I explode easily.
Then I just sleep."

Sparger leans over.

"You should see him when he's not on his medication," he says quietly.
"What you see here is only the tip of the iceberg. It scares the hell
out of me."

Too often, the chaos shifts to the next generation when addicts have
children.

In November, Riverside County sheriff's deputies busted a Palm Springs
lab in which children were at risk of toxic exposure.

Police had to hose down two young boys and two adults who lived in the
house amid the dangerous chemicals. A red tarp provided privacy in the
chilly night as, one at a time, all four undressed to be
decontaminated.

The 5-year-old and 8-year-old emerged and walked across the front yard
in plastic suits fitted with boots and hoods. They chatted with police
and played and laughed inside a patrol car while their mother and her
boyfriend sat handcuffed on chairs in the yard. Child-protection
workers took the children from the home.

Young and impaired Sometimes a child can be injured by meth long
before leaving the womb.

Junior's mother smoked methamphetamine throughout her pregnancy, and
the boy arrived in this world a shrieking addict, capable of crying
for almost 24 hours a day.

"When he was born, he had the shakes real bad. He cried a lot," said
his grandmother, who now cares for the 8-year-old.

His parents rented a small apartment, where they continued to smoke
the drug in the boy's presence.

"He was 2 when I got him," said his grandmother, who has custody of
the child in Riverside County and asked that neither be identified.
"He was traumatized. He just pointed at things and screamed all the
time."

Shortly after she got custody of Junior, psychiatrists examining the
boy did an electroencephalogram (EEG). They said it was too soon to
know whether he was brain-damaged. But he exhibits symptoms similar to
what former methamphetamine addicts experience. He can't concentrate,
suffers paranoia, has difficulty remembering basic facts and suffers
anxiety attacks.

He attends a special public school. An assessment form prepared by the
school psychologist says, "He displays severe difficulties and greater
need in nonverbal reasoning and perceptual and visual motor
organization."

The boy has the cognitive skills of a child just under 3 years old,
the report says. He can count only to 14 and cannot remember the
shapes of numerals, it says.

"All the doctors told me it was because of the drugs," his grandmother
said.

Junior's speech impediment, combined with his fast rate of talking,
makes him almost impossible to understand.

Dressed in a white shirt, brown pants and thick glasses, he labors
with a pencil going from right to left trying to write his name.

Finally, a vague outline of "Junior" appears.

He writes numbers backward. "I'm 7, and next year I'll be 6," he said
proudly.

His grandmother gently tries to correct him.

Within the next two years, Junior will undergo another EEG to
determine if he is brain-damaged.

"I would like to make cars and houses," said Junior, adjusting his
slipping glasses. "I want to build things."

His grandmother smiles.

"The teachers say he can lead a normal life," said his grandmother.
"But he won't be a doctor or lawyer."