EX-ADDICT NOW HELPS OTHERS

Wayne Hoffman flipped vodka bottles, mixed exotic drinks and talked
with many patrons perched on stools at a tavern in Texas where he bartended.

One night, one of his colleagues slipped Hoffman, then 25, a "new"
drug called "crank."

Hoffman, already accustomed to snorting cocaine, said the homemade
drug seemed "innocent" to him.

Only small physical changes to his muscular physique occurred, so no
one could tell that Hoffman got hooked on methamphetamine.

Months later, he began bleeding internally - and praying that he would not die.

"I had options," Hoffman said. "Sober up or be covered up."

Hoffman, now in his 40s, works as a drug and alcohol counselor with
Lincoln Trail Behavioral Health Systems and helps meth users try to quit.

During the past two years, Hoffman has treated about 300 to 400 meth
users in the Bowling Green-Warren County area, he said. That's about
20 percent of his patients. Most meth addicts use other substances,
too, he said.

Law enforcement data on meth use paints a scary picture for this area
and the state.

But the picture painted by Hoffman and others about the damage it
does to users looks much worse.

Using meth even once can cause instant addiction to the brain's
release of an extremely high level of dopamine, Hoffman said.

An article by the Journal of the American Medical Association
describes dopamine as the "pleasure center" in the brain, a precursor
to adrenaline.

The article stated that alcohol consumption creates a 260 dopamine
level, sex 270, marijuana 400 and cocaine 1,800.

The meth level: 3,500, Hoffman said.

So counselors face an uphill battle with meth addicts.

And many counselors who help meth addicts recover continue to recover
from addiction themselves.

Counselor B.J. Booth, sober now for 18 years, recalls waking up each
morning and downing a fifth of scotch whiskey, ingesting a variety of
pills and smoking cocaine or heroine.

But meth topped it all, he said.

"Once we touch that stuff, it feels so good," Booth said. "It takes
away all our insecurity, fills up all those holes. It makes us feel
so good, we actually feel normal. Who's not going to go back to that?"

Booth started Friend of Bill's LLC to help others to not go back.

The recovery house focuses on males recovering from alcohol and drug
addictions. The 9-year-old company operates four recovery houses in
Tennessee and Kentucky. The Bowling Green center opened in December 2005.

As a recovering addict, Booth knows what drug addicts need: to learn
respect for themselves, integrity, trust and honor. Through 12-step
programs, group counseling, personal sponsorship and personal
counseling, Booth tries to help men at the Friend of Bill's get back on track.

Hoffman also visits Friend of Bill's to counsel residents.

Booth said the meth-addict business is up in Bowling Green, even
though people know about the physical and mental damage addicts face.

Whether users call it speed, crank, crystal or meth, it does the same
destructive things, Hoffman said.

The list is ugly: paranoia, hyperactivity, hallucinations,
aggression, weight loss, aneurysm, stroke, nausea, welts on the skin,
itching and more.

"It destroys almost every organ," Hoffman said.

Hoffman said meth users also experience "meth bugs." They feel like
bugs crawl out of their pores, and then scratch themselves -
sometimes down to the bone.

Booth said the recovery rate drug addicts is 3 to 4 percent. The
other 97 percent don't make it.

They die, Booth said.

"They have this disease," Booth said. "They have a better chance of
surviving AIDS. Their quality of life would be better with AIDS."

Martin Wesley, program manager for the Lifeskills Inc. in Bowling
Green, listed a number of reasons why people use meth - financial
rewards, women who want weight loss and others just want to stay awake.

"In the end, the whole lifestyle is the addiction," Wesley said.
"Money, sex, the women and sometimes, it is even the high of stealing
to get the drug that they become addicted to."

Approximately 90 percent of the men and women Wesley sees pass
through the Lifeskills treatment program get court sentences of
either go to jail or treatment.

But while that sounds good, it comes with problems.

"Most of these young people are not ready to enter treatment," Wesley
said. "They are not ready to quit because they are forced to be here.
There are no external motivations. They come here and try to play a game."

Not only do users suffer but so do their families, Booth said.

"They run everyone off, alienate everyone and hurt people," Booth
said. Most are selfish, childish and unwilling to learn how to be
responsible, he said.

Yet it's often family members who intervene and make the addict get
help before it's too late.

And intervention leads meth addicts to Friend of Bill's.

When meth users enter the recovery house, they usually have gone
through a 30-day detoxification. It usually takes cocaine and heroine
addicts 14 days to detoxify, Booth said. After a detoxification
period, the addicts undergo 90 days of counseling. They also go to an
intensive outpatient care for 17 weeks.

Booth said it takes 30-90 days for physical sobriety, and based on
the level of addiction, one year to get mentally sober and three to
four years to get there emotionally.

Mental and emotional sobriety involves dealing with the root of the
addiction and developing a respect for spirituality. Meth users often
go through longer periods of recovery due to the magnitude of the
drug, Booth said.

"I tell them all the same thing," Booth said. "If you take the time
to give your own life value, maybe it'll mean something to you. If
they don't do this, they're not going to get it."

The house does not seek grants, and addicts must work. The official
Friend of Bill's LLC Web site reports that it costs $145 for the
move-in fee and $110 per week for all services.

Booth said when most people come to the house they lack shelter.
After consulting with counselors, they get admitted but must find a
job. All residents must work, attend group meetings and enroll in a
12-step program.

The support and peaceful atmosphere in the house make it work, Booth said.

"They go to learn a new way of living," Booth said. "The trick is how
do you not do (meth) and feel good and be happy all the time."

What makes the challenge so daunting is that addicts never "complete"
the program, Booth said. He still attends seven to nine meetings a
week along with the residents in the house.

The urge to use again can strike anywhere and any time.

Friend of Bill's represents a "code." If a recovering addict finds
themself in a store or airport and struggling with their addiction,
they could have "a friend of Bill's" paged. Another recovering addict
could answer that page and help.

Booth said his happiness now comes from offering that kind of help.

"We try to focus on the people that are really trying to do something
with their life," he said.

Jeff Giraldo contributed to this report.