RECOVERY A ROCKY ROAD

Methamphetamine, known on the street as the poor man's cocaine, wrecks
lives quickly if addicts don't get treatment.

Twenty years ago, when Dennis Collett was a young man working third
shift at a factory in the Cincinnati and Hamilton, Ohio, area, he got
hooked on the drug.

Collett, who is now a utilization review director with Cornerstone of
Recovery on Topside Road in Louisville, recalled his journey into
amphetamine addiction.

He was already using marijuana and abusing alcohol when he ``noticed
changes in many of the peer group I ran with. I noticed some of the
group had a lot more energy, didn't get sleepy, were more animated and
speedy. I found out they were using crystal meth, also called ice.
They were getting it by mail order out of Texas. It was only $100 for
a half-ounce, where coke was $100 a gram,'' Collett said.

``Three or four of us would order an ounce or half-ounce and we would
sell it and use it,'' he explained.

Fast adverse effect

Meth affects the body quickly.

``In three to four months, it started having an adverse effect on me.
When using it regularly it would keep me up 12 to 16 hours at a time.
I began to eat almost nothing ... maybe one meal a day. I'm 6 foot,
one-inch, and weighed 185 pounds then. In three months I was down to
145 or 150 pounds,'' he said.

``It made me paranoid. I felt people were watching me. I felt I had to
get more because of how bad I felt without it,'' Collett said.

``I seemed to have visual hallucinations, not just from the effects of
the drug, but due to staying up. I'd get three or four hours sleep
every couple of days. After six months using regularly, I sought help.
That was my first time in treatment,'' he said.

``Guys around me who were using it changed completely. Some went to
jail for breaking into places and domestic violence. One guy quit work
and was just dealing. He disappeared and we didn't know what happened
to him,'' Collett said.

``It was adverse to everybody. That's been 20 years ago. Since then
with the Internet and the information you have at your beck and call,
you find people using now who are much younger. A survey found that 3
to 4 percent of some junior high kids admitted to using at least once.''

Information on how to build meth labs can easily be found on the
Internet. The ingredients needed are readily available at any grocery
store.

``I think it's one of the most dangerous drugs out there because of
how cheaply it can be made and the adverse effect on users mentally
and physically,'' he said.

Needed not to feel bad

``It was one of the hardest drugs for me to get away from because you
felt so badly about yourself when you're not doing it. I needed it not
to feel bad.''

Collett said a doctor told him that the brain makes dopamine just to
make you feel normal and feel good. When you take any kind of
amphetamine drug it replaces the drug the brain produces and the brain
quits the production. Once off the meth, it then takes the brain a
while to start up again,'' Collett said.

``Cocaine is the same way,'' he added.

``In treatment our biggest problem is to tell the person they will not
feel good for a while. That's probably why people leave treatment
early on. There is a real high rate of relapse. The drug is highly
addictive,'' Collett stressed.

Normally, meth users don't have to undergo detox like those abusing
drugs like alcohol. The addiction is mental. People have to get back
in a pattern of eating and sleeping regularly, he explained.

``While the time varies for a person to become chemically dependent, a
person could become psychologically addicted in two or three uses
because of the intense euphoria the drug produces in people,'' Collett
said.

``It causes the brain to stimulate pleasure zone areas. It's almost
like the brain has a orgasmic feel from using the drug and the first
time you use is the most intense. You can't quite get that high again.
That's why the amount of the drug used increases. You chase it, but
you can't get it back because the first time is more intense,''
Collett said.

Addicts snort, smoke, inject or take meth orally. Smoking and
injecting are the most dangerous.

He said that if a person has heart problems or some other type of
illness, like diabetes or asthma, the drug acts quicker. ``I'm sure
meth has induced heart attacks because it is very hard on the heart.''

He also said people on meth do not take their medication as
prescribed, which is another danger.

There is a higher than usual suicide rate, partly due to the
depression caused when people quit taking the drug. Part of it may
also be psychotic due to the fact you don't sleep for days. ``You
start to believe things that aren't true.''

Cornerstone of Recovery, located on Topside Road in Alcoa, had an
explosion of admissions for meth addicts in 2001 and 2002, especially
in young people 17 to 24, but admissions are not now as high as two
years ago.

Problem is growing

However, ``the problem is growing in the area. Also cooking it is very
dangerous, and may result in fires and explosions.''

Collett never was involved in producing meth so has no experience in
cooking the drug.

It is the Cornerstone belief that an extended treatment plan is needed
for six months to a year in a half-way house if not in-patient
treatment, he said.

Wednesday: Methamphetamine addiction is more of a mental rather than
physical dependence.