DRUG HAS CRUEL GRIP ON REGION

Methamphetamine Is Shattering Lives In Shenandoah Valley

STAUNTON - Marie remembers well the day in November 2001 when her life
suddenly changed for the worse.

The 47-year-old grandmother was inside the Staunton home she shared
with her boyfriend, making Christmas wreaths for a crafts show when
someone knocked on the door.

It was the police, and they had a warrant. Nine officers stormed inside.

Her methamphetamine dealing days were over.

"We just turned over what we had," she recalled. "We are not the kind
of people to be belligerent with police."

Authorities seized less than an ounce of methamphetamine, several
scales, dope baggies for distribution and straws for snorting,
according to Marie and court records.

Marie, who spoke on condition that her full name not be used, was
handcuffed along with her boyfriend and taken to the police station.
He proposed marriage there. She accepted.

Later, they received five years each of supervised probation for
possession of methamphetamine, court records show.

Marie was a construction contractor at the time. But her side business
of peddling methamphetamine, which she ran for 15 years, shows how
pervasive the drug business has become in the Shenandoah Valley.

Ten years ago, methamphetamine, also called meth, was virtually
unknown in the region. Now, the volume of meth's traffic and police
seizures has equaled or outstripped that of cocaine and marijuana in
some parts of the valley.

Marie and a recovering addict from Augusta County, who also agreed to
talk, claim that methamphetamine has a user base among country folk in
the hills and mountains, street urchins in the picturesque towns and
construction workers and professionals throughout.

Meth first appeared in the Harrisonburg area in the mid-1990s and took
hold north and south of Rockingham County by 2000.

The drug appeals to the strong work ethic in the region, where the
unemployment rate typically keeps to the low single digits even during
bad economic times.

"We've got a lot of people that work second and third shifts," said
Tom Murphy, a state police agent who coordinates the RUSH Drug Task
Force for Harrisonburg and Rockingham County to the north.

"Meth is a speed - an upper - so it keeps people going like a
mega-caffeine, " he said.

A single mother would start on the drug so that she could keep house
during the day, spend time with her children at night, then work the
midnight shift, Murphy said.

Those who work one regular shift might discover that they're more
productive on meth, said Scott Bird, a drug investigator with the
Staunton Police Department.

The drug produces a high similar to cocaine and is just as potently
addictive. Also called speed, ice or crank, methamphetamine is
typically sold as a pill, powder or crystal and taken by injection,
smoking or snorting.

It gives a long-lasting alertness and euphoria and can keep abusers up
for days continuously.

The drug acts on serotonin receptors in the brain, which causes the
high. It also acts on dopamine receptors, which contributes to its
addictive quality, said Dr. Chris Holstege, director of the University
of Virginia Health System's Division of Toxicology.

Speed makes people detail-oriented, hyper-workers even in their
leisure time, Marie said.

"In fact, you focus too minutely on details," she said. "Someone who's
high might go to clean the bathroom, and you'll find them in there
with a toothbrush cleaning each tile."

When Marie was high, she might, in quick succession, decide to play an
instrument, clean up and then repair a small appliance. More
activities and projects would follow, she said, though none would get
finished.

Joe, 33, of Augusta County, is a certified welder recovering from a
decade of crank addiction. He also spoke on condition that his full
name not be used.

Joe was working well-paying jobs when he began daily use. He worked
his way up to being line leader at a plant. Work comes naturally on a
high that keeps you from ever being drowsy, he said.

"I'd stay up for two weeks, sleep for six hours, then stay up another
two weeks," Joe said.

He began snorting crank with a housemate and girlfriend in Augusta
County but injected exclusively during the latter years of his
addiction. He went from snorting a gram at a time to injecting about
two "8-balls" - about 31/2 grams each - a day, he said.

Two 8-balls could cost as much as $500 on the street, but Joe said he
got the drug for considerably less because he was dealing.

His mother said she could always tell when Joe was high. He fidgeted,
licked his lips a lot, dug into his pockets constantly and walked with
dizzying spurts.

"He wouldn't sit still. He'd walk like he was trying to get through a
fire," she said.

While high, he'd take apart videocassette recorders, televisions and
stereo equipment and put them back together. He once fixed all of his
parents' computers.

Joe left his welding jobs when he started dealing, though. He would
occasionally steal from his parents. They put him out, and he landed
in a local hotel where the manager was an addict and a dealer lived a
floor beneath him. He became part of a local theft and
drug-trafficking ring.

He was eventually arrested and convicted on several
breaking-and-entering and felony theft counts. He received concurrent
sentences as long as five years and served four months in jail last
year. He was subsequently forced into rehabilitation because he
violated his probation with drug use, court records show.

He's been clean for four months, he said.

Marie said she first used drugs as a college student in California and
used various illicit intoxicants at different times in her life.
Enticed by the money, she learned the meth trade in the 1990s under a
local drug dealer.

One dealer told her his grandfather made moonshine, his father grew
pot and he sold meth.

She used some of her supply, but never very much. Only about a gram a
day, Marie said.

"I was more addicted to the money," she said. "If I could make $100
[on a sale] or stay up all night, I'd make $100."

She made about $48,000 a year from meth trafficking. That money
supplemented about $40,000 a year she made on her contracting business
shaping and finishing concrete. She would sell only to working adults
she knew and who were at least 30 years old.

Her customers worked and went to bed every night and kept themselves
and their habits under control, she said.

"There are cranksters here running cranes, bulldozers, laying bricks,
painting. You'd be very, very surprised," she said.

Still, long-term abuse carries many ill effects. Highs can cause
hallucination, psychotic episodes and aggressive behavior.

Extreme paranoia is typical. Investigators said it is not unusual for
dealers who use their drugs to set up extensive video surveillance
equipment inside and outside their homes. They fortify themselves with
fencing and arm themselves with scores of guns, police said.

Josh Sholes, an investigator with the Augusta County Sheriff's Office,
said some meth users turn themselves in to authorities to end the
torment of what they believe is police surveillance on them - even
though there isn't any.

"We wouldn't even have a case on them," Sholes said, but the users
would swear the police had been snooping around their homes to bust
them.

"They'd tell us, 'I know you're about to get me, anyway. I saw you
hiding in the bushes. Did you hear what I said to you the other night?'"

Methamphetamine has among the lowest recovery rates for people trying
to get off it. Withdrawal can result in severe depression.

Abusers typically have rotten teeth, either from the drug's effects or
from lack of hygiene during days-long highs.

Joe needs a mouthful of caps, his mother said.

Abusers tend to go without food as much as they do without sleep. Joe
said he once became so dehydrated that he suffered heat stroke.
Another time, after he was up too long and not eating enough, his
muscles seized up, while he was alone.

"I couldn't move, and I couldn't speak," he said. "I tried to yell for
help, but nothing came out."

Falling asleep after days awake can be involuntary.

Marie remembered once sitting and talking to her daughter across a
dining table after Marie had been up for seven days straight. She had
a muscle spasm, collapsed forward and slept for 14 hours, she said.

Joe had a sleep crash that could have claimed his life. He passed out
while driving on Interstate 81 with his car in cruise control at 75
mph. As his head leaned on the window, his Suzuki Sidekick veered off
the highway and wrecked. He was not seriously injured, he said.

Abuse can in the long term produce psychoses and cardiovascular
damage, because the drug raises blood pressure and quickens the
heartbeat, said Holstege, of the U.Va. Health System.

"They're going to be at an increased risk for heart attacks in the
future" Holstege said.

For Joe and Marie, the meth use and trafficking have damaged their
lives more than their bodies.

Joe is a highly skilled worker adept at electronics. Marie has a
master's degree in psychology, is an artisan and can play drums for
blues and heavy metal.

Now, both are felons who've had trouble landing even menial jobs
because of their records.

Marie believes the biggest weakness for rehabilitation is that
offenders have nothing to go back to once the state releases them. The
illicit trade is made all the more tempting, with the chance to make
$500 in a 20-minute transaction, she said.

"Here I am, almost 50 years old, and I'm asking people to give me a
menial job, and I don't get it. It's depressing," she said.

Marie has changed her home telephone number five times to keep
suppliers from calling her to get back into the meth traffic. She
recently landed a job cooking at a Staunton restaurant, she said.

Joe looks back and sees a wasted chance at prosperity from several
well-paying jobs he left for the streets. He recently found a job and
is living back home with his parents.

"I should have a home, I should have anything anybody should want," he
said. "I'm 33-year-old and I don't have [anything] to show for it."