Series: Meth In The Mother Lode (Part 3d)

PICKING UP THE PIECES: RECOVERING ADDICT GOES ON WITH LIFE

At the time of his Angels Camp arrest in 2002, Kevin Tammarine was already
on probation for possessing meth in Amador County.

The drug was found on him after he was arrested for shoplifting a baseball
cap from the Wal-Mart store in Jackson.

Before stealing the hat, he had paid for a pair of Levis, a can of spray
paint and some pseudoephedrine pills - a main ingredient in cooking meth.

"It makes you feel like you won't get caught," Tammarine said of the drug.
"You just think you're invincible."

Amador County prosecutors wanted to send Tammarine to state prison for
breaking his probation at the time of his Dec. 16 arrest.

Tammarine was sentenced to eight months at the Calaveras County Jail, of
which he served six months.

He recalls one day, while eating breakfast in jail, looking up to see his
estranged wife being booked on charges of possessing meth.

Their 14-year-old son now had both of his parents behind bars on meth charges.

Tammarine's girlfriend decided to quit using meth and sober up after his
arrest. She did so without any formal treatment.

Released from jail 15 days early to perform community service, Tammarine
had no job, car or place to live.

"I went to the jail and said, 'Hey, take me back,' " he said.

Jailers did take him back. When he got out, he was sentenced to drug court.
If Tammarine failed drug court, he was facing a four-year prison term.

"I made up my mind that I was sick and tired of being sick and tired," he said.

Drug court enabled him to slowly piece his life back together.

To stay clean and out of prison, he had to urinate in a bottle three times
a week, attend three weekly drug classes in addition to Narcotics and
Alcoholics Anonymous meetings three times a week. Drug court was held on
Friday afternoons.

Calaveras County Superior Court Judge Douglas Mewhinney ordered Tammarine
to get a library card, a new driver's license and his GED.

Through grants, drug court gave Tammarine $300 to buy necessities at
Wal-Mart - the same one he was arrested at in Jackson. He was also given
$500 to fix his truck.

One of his biggest battles now is getting medical and dental insurance to
replace his six missing teeth.

"They wouldn't hurt. They would just start falling out," he said.

The growing use of meth throughout the country is creating a prominent scar
on an increasing number of users - rotting, brittle teeth that seem to
crumble from their mouths.

There are no statistics on "meth mouth," as the condition has come to be
known, because addicts are sometimes reluctant to admit their drug use and
because it is difficult to distinguish between damage resulting from bad
dental hygiene and that caused by narcotics. But there are signs it is on
the rise around the country.

Together, meth chemicals reduce a user's saliva, which neutralizes acids
and physically clears food from the teeth. And bacteria builds faster
because the saliva doesn't flow.

'I'm a recovering meth addict'

Between July 2003 and June 2004, 596 people requested treatment from
Calaveras County's substance abuse program. The 2004/05 stats won't be
released until the end of the summer.

Of those, 228 said they primarily abused alcohol, 200 said they used meth
and 90 said they smoked marijuana. A person could be using all of the drugs
at once, however.

Jeanne Boyce, director of Calaveras County's Health Services Agency, said
meth users in the foothills range in age, gender and backgrounds. Users
have been as young as 11 years old and as old as in their 70s.

"It's all over the map," she said.

Sheriff's Lt. Eddie Ballard, who arrested Tammarine, said often times
addicts don't recover. But he was happy to learn that Tammarine has.

"When I arrested him, he looked like death," Ballard said earlier this
year. "He's a totally different person now."

Tammarine said drug court was a difficult path to take.

"As much energy that went into getting, buying and making dope, went into
recovery," he said.

Drug court participants have up to 15 months to complete the program.
Tammarine began in July 2003 and graduated last August. As of this year, he
is no longer on probation.

"You take one person at a time. People do recover with the proper support
and willingness," Boyce said. "For so many addicts, they're on the outside
looking in."

Tammarine has shown up at drug court this year to encourage others in the
program.

"Similar to a baby who has to crawl before he or she can walk, I slowly
started to take care of old wreckage, keep appointments and test clean.
Drug court showed me there is a life without drugs and a good one at that,"
he said in his graduation speech.

"None of this would be possible if I wasn't willing.

"One of my biggest thanks goes to the support of my significant other, and
my son, who just got Student of the Week. And it's triumphs like that that
make me realize how wonderful life can be."

Tammarine said his worst days now are better than his best drug days.

"Being wired for 20 years, it took me 18 months to start doing things like
appreciating the sunrise in the morning or doing something with my kid," he
said. "I've got all these pluses that happened because I quit one stupid drug."

Tammarine's son - now a 16-year-old high school junior - lives with his
father and visits his mother on the weekends.

"We have a better relationship now than we probably ever did married," he said.

Building homes, spending time with loved ones and occasional weekend
getaways to the coast or high country are how Tammarine prefers to spend
his days now.

He admits, however, that when in places such as drug stores he is sometimes
reminded of the days when he would be in search of his next meth fix. But
as time passes, he said it's easier to deal with those memories.

"I'm a recovering meth addict. My sobriety is fragile and it always will be
fragile," he said. "I still find myself walking down the aisle just to see
if the iodine is where it was two years ago. Except now I don't act on it
like I used to."