METH TIGHTENS GRIP

Brandy Rascon holds pictures of her two children as she stands behind
the door of her La Plata County Jail cell. Rascon says she does not
want to be released from jail anytime soon because of her
methamphetamine addiction.

This La Plata County home was searched in summer 2001 by the Southwest
Drug Task Force. Three children lived there. The home had no running
water, and the toilets emptied into the basement. "These people didn't
care enough about themselves, particularly their kids, to take them
out of this environment," said sheriff's Sgt. Kelly Davis, task force
director.

randy Rascon snorted her first methamphetamine line at age 11. Now 27
and behind bars, she is fighting to keep custody of her two children,
ages 5 and 7. She wants high school students to know the truth about
the drug that ruined her.

She wants them to know that meth makes people feel better than anyone
can imagine. That the drug is cheap, but that dealers can make
thousands of dollars every week selling it. That a meth high can last
10 hours.

And she wants them to know that once the drug wears off, people can go
"crazy." Depression and thoughts of suicide set in. Prison is possible.

"I want to be an influence on the kids," said Rascon, a former meth
dealer. "I want the kids to know if they keep on doing it, they're
going to end up just like me. ... It destroyed my whole family."

Meth is tightening its grip in La Plata County, officials say. The
drug is taking its toll on families.

The La Plata County Department of Human Services has removed five
children from their homes this year because the parents were using
methamphetamine, said Martha Johnson, supervisor of the
child-protection welfare team. The department has removed an
additional six children in the past two years from homes where
methamphetamine was used, she said.

The drug is also available to children in middle school and high
school, according to students and law-enforcement officials.

"It affects everybody, and anybody who says 'It's not affecting me' -
they're not paying attention," said Kelly Davis, a sheriff's sergeant
and director of the Southwest Drug Task Force, a multi-jurisdictional
agency that investigates drug trafficking. "It is a very large problem
in our community, and it is a growing problem."

Rascon addresses her message to children, because she knows children
in Durango who use meth. She knows she may never regain custody of her
own children because she uses meth. And while the drug is costing La
Plata County taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, she believes
it is children who are paying the greatest price.

She spoke from the La Plata County Jail. Stealing a car put her there.
She blames the drug for fueling her crimes.

'I don't want to be released'

Rascon said her father taught her at a young age that she would never
need a job as long as she could sell meth. She said she used to make
$4,000 a week bringing drugs into La Plata County from Phoenix. "I
used to supply half the drug dealers in this town with
methamphetamine," she said.

Rascon is fighting to keep custody of her two children. The Department
of Human Services put her children in foster homes, saying they were
being neglected. "There's a really big chance I might lose my kids
because of all this," Rascon said through tears. "I love my kids more
than anything in the world."

But she admits jail might be the best place for her. The night she was
arrested, she was contemplating suicide. "I was going to drive that
car off a cliff," she said. "I was tired of this life."

Drug dealers, she said, think of her as a "snitch" because of her
willingness to work with the Southwest Drug Task Force. And "being a
snitch gets you killed," she said. She also fears the strength of the
addiction and the lure of money could pull her back into dealing.

"I'm so scared to go out there and find another life," Rascon said. "I
don't want to be released. I want to go straight to drug rehab.

"I'll let my kids go before they grow up like I did," she
said.

Meth seizures rising rapidly

Meth, also known as ice or glass or crank or crystal method, is the
drug task force's No. 1 priority, Davis said. It accounts for 90
percent of the agency's case load, he said.

In 2003, the task force seized more than 1,400 grams of meth worth
more than $140,000 on the street, Davis said. That is up from 500
grams a year earlier. In comparison, the task force seized 800 grams
of cocaine in 2003.

In the summer of 2001, task force officers entered a La Plata County
family's home in which the parents of three children were using meth.
The home had no electricity. An outdoor garden hose was the only
source of running water. The toilet emptied into the basement. The
warm refrigerator had maggot-infested meat.

"Their kids are living in this filth, and these people could care
less," Davis said. "It's difficult for me as a parent to fathom how
anyone can do that to their child. It is a tremendously devastating
drug. The cost is not dollars. The cost is lives."

Methamphetamine is worse than cocaine, Davis said. It is more pure,
more addictive, cheaper and longer lasting. It became more abundant
than cocaine about five years ago in La Plata County, he said.

Methamphetamine is "just like a cancer into every other crime in this
community," said La Plata County Sheriff Duke Schirard.

'People don't have the foggiest idea'

Schirard described a meth addiction like this: A father decides to use
methamphetamine. He can't afford to pay the bills. He gets mad at mom
and "busts her face." She goes to the hospital. The family can't
afford hospital bills or drug treatment. Dad goes to jail. The child
goes to Human Services.

"There are so many sheltered people in this community that don't have
the foggiest idea of what is going on with it," Schirard said. "We
have known people in all professions who are users. The use of this
stuff affects everybody."

Meth is a compulsive drug, said Marta Martinez Evans, program director
of Pathfinder Clinic, a nonprofit counseling agency in Durango. Once
an addict starts, he goes on a three-to 11-day binge. After coming
down, all he wants is sleep.

For families, the drug is like a downward spiral, Martinez Evans
said.

"The more they get into the drug, the faster the spin goes, and the
more the kids are on the outside of the spin," she said.

"Parents who are on meth ... don't attach to their kid because they are
so attached to their drugs."

But children don't want to be separated even from abusive parents.
Removing children from homes causes reactive attachment disorder, the
inability to connect with parents emotionally, Martinez Evans said.

In the womb, a cringing fetus

Mothers who use meth give birth to babies addicted to the drug. In the
womb, a fetus will cringe up to block the blood flow through the
umbilical cord, she said. When the child comes out, it is usually
smaller than it should be, she said.

Meth babies are usually irritable, and their skin is too sensitive to
be touched comfortably, she said. Lights are too bright for them, and
noises too loud. Long-term effects on children born to meth addicts
are being studied, but like children with fetal alcohol syndrome, meth
babies are likely to have learning disorders and behavioral problems,
she said.

Women who use meth while pregnant usually feel "flawed and defective
as a human being," she said. "They are so ashamed and so humiliated by
the fact they are hurting their kid, they won't go to treatment."

Assistant District Attorney Craig Westberg said he started noticing a
problem with methamphetamine in the early 1990s when he worked as a
prosecutor in Farmington. It was common for users to commit property
crimes and exhibit violent behavior, he said.

"I've never seen anything that would get somebody addicted as quickly
as it does," Westberg said. "It's a tough monkey to get off your back."

When he returned to Colorado in 1996, meth was just becoming a
problem. It hadn't even reached Pagosa Springs. But now, meth is an
"epidemic" and the "drug of choice" in Pagosa, Westberg said.

'Taking the nation by surprise'

The criminal justice system will not solve the meth problem, Westberg
said. Instead, parents and those familiar with the drug need to
educate the children about its dangers. The extent of the problem
cannot be overstated or understated, otherwise adults will lose
credibility with the children, he said.

"I really hope that kids will start paying attention," Westberg said.
"And I do think that people are starting to learn a lot more. It's
just so new. It's something that is not taking our community; it is
taking the nation by surprise."

The 6th Judicial District Attorney's Office does not have numbers
available for how many meth cases it handles or how many criminals use
meth. Westberg said the office aims for felony convictions and a
prison sentence for meth dealers.

"If you are selling methamphetamine, we are going to deal with you
very, very harshly," he said.

Rascon, meanwhile, hopes the simple truth of what's happened in her
own life will make others think twice before using the drug. She faces
180 days in jail after pleading guilty to felony forgery and theft in
a plea agreement with the District Attorney's Office. Sentencing is
set for July 16 in District Court.

"Everything that has gone wrong in my life is because of meth," she
said.