IN A METH GRIP

For A Growing Number Of People In The Area, This Cheap, Easy-To-Make Drug
Holds The Ticket To A Very Bad Trip - From A Seductive High To A Dramatic
Descent Into Addiction And Loss

For 20 years, methamphetamine gave Chuck Grier the boost he needed. But the
drug had consequences - it cost Grier his marriage; his wife left him two
years after they were married, now 19 years ago. Since then, his son has
fought his own battle with methamphetamine, but has conquered the
addiction, just like his father.

"I missed his childhood," Grier says of his son. "It was like I was a
different person - I was on the outside looking in."

Grier's story mirrors the experiences of others who have sought help for
their addiction - some started using methamphetamine, or "meth," casually
or to help them through the workday and their addiction grew. Before they
realized, they were helpless, in the midst of a full-blown methamphetamine
addiction.

The drug is reaching epidemic proportions in the Athens area, authorities
say. More frequently, police are making methamphetamine arrests or linking
other crimes to the drug.

Case in point: Of the 91 cases that came out of the Jackson County grand
jury in July, 42 - approaching half - had at least one
methamphetamine-related charge, according to court records.

A man accused of gunning down a Pendergrass officer in December is serving
time on a meth charge, and the authorities suspect a man who shot a Madison
County deputy in June was high on the drug at the time.

But perhaps more startling to investigators and an even more telling of the
spread of the drug, police are more frequently finding full-blown
methamphetamine labs or remnants of them, meaning a reminder that they are
dealing with a hometown problem - one that won't go away anytime soon.

The Wrath Of Meth

When he was 19 years old, Grier, now 40, started driving trucks and he
turned to methamphetamine to keep him awake as he drove his routes
throughout the Southeast. The roughly 48 hours of sleep Grier had every few
days were about the only moments he escaped the wrath of meth.

"When I woke up it was the first thing on my mind - that next fix," said
Grier. "It became a must instead of a want."

Stay awake for three or four days at a time, then sleep for two days. For
20 years, Grier repeated the "vicious, never-ending cycle."

"I usually drank alcohol and (took) pills to come down," Grier said.
"You're dying for rest. But, when you lay down, you can't go to sleep."

Grier realized he had a problem after two stints in prison totaling 55
months for drinking-related offenses that his methamphetamine addiction
spawned. He sought help at The Potter's House, a Christian ministry in
Jackson County where addicts live and work for months to defeat hard
addictions.

"It was either quit or die," Grier confessed. "And I was ready to do that.
.. When I wound up here, it was over then."

The Drug Of Choice

When Mike Cleveland was elected sheriff of Hart County in 2000,
methamphetamine was not the drug of choice. It was crack cocaine.

"Five years ago, it was a rare thing to find methamphetamine in Hart
County," Cleveland said.

Since then, though, methamphetamine "has just shot crack cocaine out of the
saddle. ... A full 75 percent of your former crack cocaine users are now
methamphetamine users."

Though police know the drug is well-used, it's not been an easy fight to
curb methamphetamine's spread, and most lawmen will admit, it's a
frustrating battle. Though arrests are becoming more common, some
authorities say they are only scratching the surface.

"It's like you lock up two and four more need it," Cleveland said.

People arrested for methamphetamine are notorious for teaching others they
meet in jail how to make the drug, cops say. That has only helped to spread
information about how to manufacture the drug around the region, Cleveland
said.

Hart County authorities have found at least six since methamphetamine labs
since 2002 and remnants of at least two others during that period. They can
also point to certain items used in the manufacture of the drug - such as
matches, which provide red phosphorus for the drug's production - that are
selling rapidly as more proof that methamphetamine is produced in the county.

But often the arrests are enough to prove just how easily people are
becoming hooked on the drug.

From 60-year-olds to first-time offenders, in Hart County just about every
type of person has been arrested for a methamphetamine-related charge,
Cleveland said.

"It's like nothing this country has ever seen," Cleveland said of
methamphetamine use. "It's the worst thing that ever hit the streets."

What Is Meth?

Madison County resident David Morrison used methamphetamine for 10 years
before he quit about seven months ago.

While the drug made him feel good, it affected his ability to function
reasonably. It caused him to pick at sores that formed on his arms and at
one point, says he followed a car along the road and into a parking lot,
barely realizing what he was doing.

"A lot of self-values, you lose," Morrison said.

Methamphetamine - a strong, addictive stimulant that affects the central
nervous system - is known by dozens of slang names.

Beannies, brown, chalk, get-go and tick tick are among the street names for
methamphetamine. Batu, hot ice, kaksonjae, shabu and Vidrio, are all slang
names for crystal methamphetamine, a more potent form of the powerfully
addictive drug.

Meth comes in different forms, including powder and chunks, and it can be
smoked, snorted or eaten, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The
drug is often found as a white power which can be dissolved in water.

The drug traces it roots to 1887, when amphetamine was first produced in
Germany. Soldiers fighting in World War II used amphetamines to provide
them with a spark to stay awake longer.

In the United States during the 1950s, college students and truck drivers
began to use methamphetamine, and a decade later, an injectable form of the
drug emerged.

In the early 1990s, the heaviest methamphetamine use was in the western
states, including California, Nevada and Oregon. Since then, the drug has
moved eastward, though it's stayed in more rural areas.

Like others who were addicted to the drug, Morrison, 30, lost his job as a
house painter and then lost his family.

"It makes me sick to my stomach to think about what I had before and what I
have now," he said.

A study conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the
University of Michigan found that methamphetamine use among eighth-, 10th-
and 12th-graders has declined since 1999. According to the 2004 study, 6.2
percent of all high school seniors have tried methamphetamine in their
lifetime and 1.4 percent of high school seniors have tried the drug within
the past 30 days.

Since then, use in Northeast Georgia has exploded.

"It's like a floodgate was (opened)," said Cleveland, the Hart sheriff.
"You wouldn't believe it - young folks and old folks getting on meth."

In Arcade, police Chief Dennis Bell estimates between 85 percent and 90
percent of the 141 drug arrests since January 2004 were related to
methamphetamine, and that about 85 percent of all burglary- and
theft-related crimes are connected to drugs, primarily meth.

Fighting The Trend

Madison County sheriff's Sgt. Tommy Williams is amazed people are willing
to use methamphetamine, especially when he considers the drug's ingredients
- - which can include anti-freeze or rubbing alcohol.

"The normal person - if they knew how that stuff was made - they'd think
twice before they put it in their body," said Williams, who was shot in
June by a suspect who authorities believe was high on methamphetamine at
the time.

The popularity of methamphetamine can be, in part, attributed to the fact
it is easily made for as little at $50.

"If you've got a little bit of counter space, you can make meth," Cleveland
said.

Other ingredients - including some cold medicines - can be easily purchased
at local drug stores.

"It's easily made, and you can go on the Internet to find out how it's
made," Williams said. "You can go under your kitchen sink and you've got 90
percent of the makings for it."

Without a doubt, experts say, methamphetamine use has some serious health
effects, including inflammation of the heart lining, irregular heartbeat
and damage to blood vessels. The drug is also notorious for rotting users'
teeth - a condition known as meth mouth.

"It'll take every bit of your self-esteem. It'll take every bit of your
will power," said Grier, the reformed addict trying to put 20 years of meth
use behind him. "It'll destroy your life. It's really hard to put into
words how far down it'll carry you - the lowest you can imagine. You're not
living anymore, you're just existing."

Methamphetamine affects more that just the people who are addicted. The
Georgia General Assembly this year passed legislation requiring stores to
keep some over-the-counter medicines out of customers' reach.

"It'll help," said Fred Gurley, owner of Crawford W. Long Pharmacy in
downtown Jefferson. "They had to do something. It's a step in the right
direction."

The Cost Of Meth

Two months. Vaughn Phillips knows he will be faced with quite a challenge then.

That's when the Cartersville man will be released from The Potter's House.
By then, it will have been 11 months since he last used methamphetamine.

"I wish I never did it," Phillips said. "Now that I know how good it is,
it's going to be a struggle the rest of my life."

Phillips, 36, was arrested four times during a six-month span - the last
time in January. He could have been sentenced to 64 years in prison for the
four arrests, but instead a judge sentenced him to 20 years probation and
ordered him to attend treatment at The Potter's House.

Once Phillips completes the program, he still faces about 19 years of
probation. That means no missteps, no more arrests and no more drugs if he
is to stay out of jail.

Phillips is quick to admit the long road ahead.

For the first 33 years of his life, he was an average citizen with no
criminal record. But three years ago, he became hooked on methamphetamine
and his life changed forever. He used whatever money he could scrounge up
to support his habit. He couldn't say no to the power of meth.

"The drug is the most powerful drug I've ever done," Phillips admits. "Meth
is such a high and it lasts so long that you don't really come down."

By contrast, cocaine, which Phillips has also used, doesn't give as long of
a high. The down times of cocaine tend to last longer as well, Phillips said.

Phillips isn't alone in what he lost.

For Chuck Grier, the cost was similar. He squandered nearly entire
paychecks, vehicles and acres of land his father left to him just to feed
his addiction, but struggles today to put a total cost of how much his
20-year addiction cost him.

"Everything I made went for methamphetamine," Grier remembered. "I got paid
on Friday. On Monday morning, I'd have to borrow money if I needed
something for breakfast."

Coming Clean

Grier knows anyone who wants to come clean can.

After all, he did.

"There is no way you can get better until you (help) yourself," Grier said.
"You've got to surrender."

Others like David Morrison and Vaughn Phillips have also come clean and are
no longer consumed by their drug use.

"It's the best thing that happened to me," Morrison said of kicking the habit.

But unlike other drugs, Phillips contends, methamphetamine is a tougher
drug to quit and a 30-day rehabilitation program likely wouldn't work. For
some, the isolation that a place like The Potter's House offers is the key
to breaking a methamphetamine addiction.

"It's hard to do it on your own," Morrison said of curing a methamphetamine
addiction. "Most people need to be isolated from it."

Grier knew he needed help before he finally sought it in July 2003. Two
months earlier, he tried to sober up, but that effort only lasted two days.

"I knew I needed help," Grier admitted. "I didn't want help. I liked what I
was doing."

By that time, Grier knew his fate.

"I was headed for death," Grier said starkly. "I wanted to die. I didn't
have the guts to pull the trigger myself."

But instead of dying, Grier was reborn. He completed a drug program at The
Potter's House and today he heads up the auto shop at the facility, work
that has helped keep him sober for the past two years.

"This is my recovery - being involved with other people," Grier said. "It
helps me stay clean by working with these guys."

He is no longer consumed by thoughts of using methamphetamine. Today he
finds happiness with his family and spending time with his mother, his son
and his two grandchildren.

"After being clean two years, I have a better relationship with my mother,
my family and my son than I've ever had," Grier said. "I can love. When I
was in my addiction, I didn't love anybody. ... I didn't even love myself,
let alone anybody else."

The toll methamphetamine has on people's lives isn't measured in the grams
or ounces like how one might find the drug on the street.

"It's measured in broken relationships," Grier said. "The people that are
closest to you, you seem to hurt the most."