DRUG ABUSE HAS MANY VICTIMS

The article on the costs of methamphetamine ("Meth epidemic taking economic
toll," May 9 News-Leader) gave good examples of expenses, but there are
many more.

Families who suffer the loss of one parent to meth are reduced to a
single-parent family with a single income. When the addicted parent was the
provider of health insurance, the family may be forced to go on Medicaid.
The loss of a parent to meth is like watching that parent die. Medicaid
picks up the bill for psychological services for the traumatized children.

Families often learn of meth use when the notice of foreclosure is received
and the meth user fails to come home. Nice middle-class people learn they
have no equity remaining and it is too late to save the home. There is also
a deluge of maxed-out credit cards that were sent to the workplace or a
post office box. Creditors absorb the loss if the devastated family cannot
pay the debts and the credit of the innocent spouse is ruined.

Add in the traffic and workplace accidents caused by meth use, time lost
from work before termination becomes necessary and taxes not collected from
the thousands employed by the underground meth economy, and we can begin to
get the picture of the cost of meth. I fear that our country can't survive
the drain by this epidemic.

Patricia Campbell

Republic