SPECIAL REPORT

THE METH WAR: CHILDREN UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Teenager Shares Her Tale Of Horror And Addiction

SOUTH COUNTY - A 12-year-old girl huddles in the corner of a dark and
filthy flop house, a piece of rubber wrapped around her arm. A shaky hand
sticks a needle in her vein. Her world turns bright white then grey and fuzzy.

The shaking stop.

So does her heart.

This is just one instance out of volumes of statistics showing the dramatic
and ever-increasing rise in the use of hard-core lethal drugs by young
children. Reports indicate that methamphetamine is now, by far, the drug of
choice amongst our youth and that the problem has reached epidemic
proportions.

"It's out of control," said Grover Beach detective Brian Thomas. "There has
been a steady rise in the use of meth in people 17-30, but the scariest
thing is the unbelievable increase in young kids. I'm talking kids that are
still in junior high strung out on this stuff. It's not unusual at all to
arrest kids 13, 14, and 15 for possession and being under the influence."

"It's definitely our most prevalent drug in society today," reports
Detective Sgt. Scott Smith, of the Pismo Beach Police Department. "And it's
definitely one of the deadliest."

According to Smith, in Pismo Beach alone there were 268 drug-related
arrests in the past 12 months and of those, Smith said, in excess of 85
percent were under the influence of methamphetamine.

"In the past year, we've seen a significant increase in meth-related
crimes, including seizures of substantial amount of the drug and cash."

What is "meth" and why is it so popular?

Methamphetamine is made up of three relatively common ingredients with the
primary ingredient, ephedrine, being found in such over-the-counter cold
medications like Actifed and Sudafed. Although ephedrine is now illegal,
meth manufacturers simply buy massive quantities of the legal cold tablets
and extract the deadly drug. It is then mixed with hydruotic acid and red
phosphorous.

The rush one gets from snorting or shooting the drug (also known as speed
or crank) is one of immediate euphoria, elevated mood, and happiness. On
the downside, short-term use causes a rise in blood pressure, inability to
sleep, and loss of appetite. Long-term effects are far more serious
because, as San Luis Obispo Narcotics Task Force agent Mike Kennedy
explains, being high becomes the norm.

"A regular users is always on the stuff," says Kennedy. "It becomes they're
normal way of living. When they're out, they get depressed and tired and
very quickly need to get that 'jumpstart.' As we all well know, what goes
up must come down and when a junkie comes down, they crash hard. They'll do
anything for a score."

Kennedy recalls dealing with those on speed and the evident effects the
drug has on the brain.

"You start hallucinating and become extremely paranoid. You think
everybody's out to get you. People on meth don't care about their children,
their friends, or themselves. All they want is that next hit. The s---
fries your brain."

As far as the drug's popularity, it is due largely in part that it is so
easy to get and it's very cheap.

For $800-$900, a manufacturer can cook up a pound of methamphetamine and
sell it in quarter grams and make $45,000. The profits are very enticing.

Most of the prepared meth comes from Mexico and local California meth labs,
Thomas said.

"It's everywhere," said Thomas, "We do our best to stay on top of the
problem, but it gets real overwhelming. You go home sometimes at night and
just say 'Why? Why are these beautiful young kids killing themselves.' It's
crazy."

Peer pressure and family problems are the two primary reasons that many
young people turn to drugs, said Thomas.

"A lot of kids don't know any different having been raised in an
environment where their parents are users and drugs are a normal way of life."

Thomas believes that there should be a law that allows for the arrest of
any parent that knows their child is using and lets it happen.

"I could walk into the local high school and buy meth, pot, LSD, even
heroin, in less than a half hour." Thomas said matter-of-factly."

Kennedy, as part of the Narcotics Task Force, corroborates.

"We went undercover and bought just about every drug you can think of at AG
High last year," Kennedy said. "In a high school! I'm sorry, but that's a
problem."

Kennedy cites the dissolution of the American family and the glorification,
at times, of drugs on television.

"The family's been torn apart in this country. The family has been totally
de-valued. There are no morals. It used to be 'one nation under God' and
now it's one nation over God. We created this mess. We're all responsible."

Kennedy says he doesn't see any end to the drug war unless society as a
whole is willing to change.

"The citizens, the families, the courts, the police, the recovery centers,
all need to walk hand in hand to combat this problem. We're losing control.
You can pour all the money you want into prevention and treatment programs,
but if we don't change our permissive attitude as a whole country, it will
never go away."

With emotion shaking in his voice and tears filling his eyes, Kennedy says
he and his partners are on the front lines of a true war every day. He
recalls one day raiding a suspected drug house when a dealer grabbed him
and shoved a loaded .45 against his head.

Drugs kill one way or another.

With more than a 400 percent jump state-wide in the use of meth,
Californians continue to crank it up and as they become addicted, their
morality and mortality goes out the window.

Suzanne, a just-turned-18-year-old from Grover Beach, tells a tale of
gut-wrenching horror, recalling the realities of an entire life on drugs.

Just 90 days clean, Suzanne sips coffee at Together We Can, a Grover Beach
haven for recovering addicts and with her voice filled with anger and
bitterness, she tells how it all started.

"For me, I didn't choose to use. I was born an addict. My mother was(and
still is) a junkie. My dad was a drunk. I weighed into this world at 2 lbs.
3 ounces. I was addicted to meth from day one. My mom used to fill my
bottle with a great little mixture of whiskey and apple juice. Nice way to
be nurtured," she said with a bitter edges.

"My father started giving me pot at an early age and by 15 I was fully
strung out on speed. I snorted it, shot it up, you name it. I'm scared of
needles now because I get nightmares of when my dad used to stick them at
my face and taunt me with them. He was a real a--hole."

Breaking down into sobs, this frail teenager is trying desperately to hold
on to whatever bits and pieces of a life she has left.

Talking in the past tense as if her life is already over, Suzanne cried
softly, "I wanted to be a vet. I would have made a real good vet. I didn't
ask to be born."

With this reporter in tears(as well as my photo-grapher), I reached over
and squeezed her hand, re-minding her that she was still so young and that
she could kick this demon out of her soul forever.

She looked up and wiping her face said, "If don't stay sober, I'll end up
just like my mom in County Jail and one day I'll be telling my addicted
babies how sorry I am. I just want my mother to tell me she's sorry for
doing this to me."

Another recovering addict at the center is 38-year-old Bea, who has spent
more than a quarter century self-destructing. Although they both share the
same disease, Bea's story is a little different than Suzanne's in that Bea
takes full responsibility for her choice to spiral nto the deadly drug world.

"I was raised in a fairly nice middle-class neighborhood in the Antelope
Valley," Bea began. "Pool parties, barbecues, a pretty nice life."

On the outside.

Bea's father was a brutal alcoholic and her uncle amused himself by giving
her beer when she was three and four years old. A few years later, her own
mother and an aunt thought it would be cute to give 11-year-old Bea a
bottle of booze for her birthday.

"I drank the whole thing and never looked back. I drank every day after that."

Bea now battles with her sobriety every day and so far has 90 days without
a drink. she also has cirrhosis of the liver.

But for Bea, it wasn't just the bottle that imprisoned her.

She shows the scars of years of shooting heroin and speed that are just
healing as she proudly has exorcised the needle from her arm nearly two
years ago.

"I was 12 when I first shot heroin. I bacame so hopelessly addicted that I
thought I had no way out. I've been in and out of so many hospitals, detox
centers, and mental wards. I never dreamed of recovery."

Suzanne cites her regular Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous meetings and
her new-found inner strength to stay clean.

"My turning point came when I was so high one night - I had been on a
32-day binge and had hit bottom hard. I got down on my knees and cried like
a baby. Then I prayed. It was God that put me in recovery. I should have
died that night. God said it wasn't my turn yet."

Calling it a "disease of denial," Bea describes how your head will tell you
anything, whatever it wants, to get you to keep using. "It's a true demon."

Putting a Higher Being back in our lives, living through a spiritual guide,
passing legislation that make stricter drug laws, and most importantly,
loving and educating our children through example will hopefully curb this
pandemic of drug abuse and leave a world clean of violated bodies, children
killing children over $20 worth of pot, hospitals full of junkies
overdosing everyday, and then maybe, just maybe, our children will have
some nice stories to tell their grandchildren someday.

Investigator Mike Kennedy sums it up with perfection.

"When you remove the foundation of a house, you know what's gonna happen.
We are a product of our own doing."

Copyright Five Cities Times Press Recorder

Checked-by: Richard Lake