MONSTER METH: TO HELL AND BACK AGAIN

Brad and Jessica Bewley remember the darkest moments when methamphetamine
spun their lives out of control.

For her, it was the day her father came to visit their home.

"Someone was there besides us and the other guy pulled a gun out and said,
'If he comes in, he's dead,'" the 24-year-old recalled. "I hid. We all did.
We acted like we weren't there but he knew we were. I saw my family hurting
and wanted my life back."

By then, she was a much different person from Jess Wofford, the Fort Payne
High School cheerleader, National Honor Society member and member of a
state championship soccer team.

She went to high school with Brad, now 27, but they never dated because "he
was a drunk and a hoodlum."

After high school, however, they dated and married.

His lowest point was the day she took their 1 year old daughter and moved
out, saying she wanted a divorce. He had snatched the daughter and dragged
his wife until she let go of the car. He returned the baby unharmed but
after losing his wife and daughter, Bewley tried to take his own life by
drinking a bottle of Jagermeister.

"I was just going to mash the gas and drive off the side of the mountain,"
he said.

Before he could, the police, deputies and state troopers began a high-speed
pursuit.

"I came off an embankment at 100 mph. A deputy shot out my tires but in my
mind, he was trying to kill me. I actually clipped the guy with my
Pathfinder and got back on the road with no tires left going about 10 mph.
I pulled into a gravel parking lot and they all jumped out with guns. I
jumped out with my hand under my shirt like I had a gun. The guy I nearly
ran over told me later there were 17 revolvers on me and he had no idea why
I wasn't a dead man. The good Lord was taking care of me and saved me."

Brad and Jess Bewley are relived to have those self-destructive days behind
them. It has been four years since their living hell. Now sober, they are
sharing their story through the Partnership for a Drug-Free DeKalb County
in the hopes they can prevent others from trying meth and give hope to
those who are now addicted.

He started using methamphetamine when he was 19.

"I'd been drinking since I was 14 or 15, always a big-time alcoholic, but I
turned down meth the first 10 or 15 times it was offered to me. I actually
quit meth for a year when I got married but then we got settled in and it
became an everyday habit for me."

For her, it was feeling lonesome with her husband out partying with "skinny
girls using meth" when she was still carrying around the extra weight from
giving birth to their baby.

"When I started using meth, I was no longer alone," she said. "I knew
nothing about meth before then. Someone called me to say Brad was doing
'crystal' and I said, 'Crystal who?'"

They said meth gave them a sense of power, filled them with pleasurable
sensations and allowed them to go a week or longer without sleep. But then
there is always the crash.

"I just about drove Brad crazy the first time I tried meth. It was 4 a.m.
and I told him to go get more. I don't know whether it is the actual high
or feeling bad without it in your system. I felt like dying, but I also
knew I wanted meth from then on," she said.

"Meth compromises every moral and value you have," she said. "Our daughter
lived with her grandparents. We went there on Christmas Day to see her for
an hour and drop off a present, then we left. It's sounds terrible, but it
didn't seem important. The baby got in the way and came second to crystal
meth."

The Bewley's started making the drug in their home. They knew the dangers
but, she said, "You don't think about consequences. After you use so much,
you lose your mind. Brad would get a box cutter and slide the blade in and
out while asking who I was sleeping with. He would hit me, then be in tears
the next minute. He threatened to kill me a lot."

Jessica Bewley said she loved the sense of power they had over people who
would do whatever they wanted just to get an ounce of the drug.

She said part of the reason it is so hard for drug addicts to recognize
their problem is because society brands addicts as bad people while the
many options for treatment are practically ignored by the media.

"Good people make bad decisions and can still be thoughtful, caring people
at heart. They are just in bondage. It is a horrible mentality that addicts
are bad people because if you are one, you start to think, 'Well, I'm just
a bad person who isn't worth saving' You give up on yourself."

Brad said he is thankful the police and Drug Court brought his madness to
an end. Finding faith in Jesus Christ filled the void in his life that meth
had consumed before.

"Nobody has done more meth in this town than I did, but I know it can be
done, and I will gladly show anyone how they can get off meth. I spent 120
days in rehab and got my mind straight enough to ask forgiveness from the
Lord. Being addicted to meth is like being under the control of the devil,"
he said.

The Bewleys divorced but remarried with meth no longer a part of their
lives. Their daughter is now 4 and they also have a 21-month-old baby with
another on the way.

When their own children are tempted to try drugs, they plan to be honest
and open about their past.

"We know where that road leads because we've spent half our lives trying to
defeat the addiction," he said.

The only way to stop methamphetamine is for the government to take
ephedrine, an essential component, off the market, he added.

"You have to hit absolute bottom before you can see what crystal meth does
to you," she said. "I am proof that it doesn't matter how you grew up or
how much self-confidence you get from being popular, making good grades,
etc. Addiction doesn't care who you are."