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August 11, 2005
meth
Written Tuesday 8/9/2005
I was listening to WNYC this morning and one of the shows was talking about meth. I don't know what all the hype is about meth. it's all over the news these days (CNN, NPR, MSNBC). Meth is old news. At least if you grew up in Central California. There were meth labs all over the place when I was in high school. All the chicks in school were doin' it to stay thin. One of my friends did crank all the time so that she'd get straight As in school. There was one guy who'd smoke it in my backyard (not with my permission). Little kids were getting killed when their meth-making parents accidentally lit the house on fire. Of course they weren't on meth, no one who makes the shit uses the shit. How could you? That stuff is foul.
I remember the day that I found out one of my best friends was doing crank. Earlier in the day she had asked me for a ride to get some pot. I wasn't exactly thrilled about doing that. At the time, i had maybe been drunk once and smoked cigarettes. All my friends smoked weed though, so I just went along with it. We went back to my house afterwards and were hanging out for awhile and then her dad came and picked her up. About an hour later she called frantically saying she needed to come back to pick up her purse she had forgotten. So she showed up and I grabbed her bag to take it downstairs to her. It felt practically empty and it shouldn't considering the amount of pot she had supposedly purchased. So I looked inside and saw the off-white powder.
It made sense, she had lost tons of weight and had been acting different. She had been hanging out with new friends. She had been really depressed and now she was "happy."
I told no one, except for one friend. He talked to her, I talked to her, we didn't tell a soul. Her parents were freakin' missionaries and close friends of my parents. We had BEGGED her parents to let her go to public school with me that year. I was supposed to be "watching out for her." I was 2 years older than her.
About a month later she tried to kill herself.
Meth is awesome, or not. It is also NOT new.
It was amazing, in a frightening sad way, while listening to this radio show that is based out of NY, NY, nearly every caller that called in to tell of their fight against meth was from a "small town in central california." I remember taking drives through the foothills and being able to smell the labs. Aaah, if only they had pulled cough syrup off the shelves 15 years ago, everything would be fine. What kind of bullshit answer to a serious problem is that?
Posted by meloknee at August 11, 2005 11:56 AM
Comments
Meth is crazy! We didn't have that shit in the midwest, at least not in the 80's, when I was in high school.
Posted by: bugg at August 11, 2005 03:18 PM
Good thing you didn't...you'd've been strung out!
Posted by: melanie at August 11, 2005 03:29 PM
oh god, i grew up in small town arkansas where rednecks make it in their bathtubs. we were always hearing about meth labs getting busted in someone's basement or something.
Posted by: neko at August 11, 2005 09:09 PM
Yeah, one of the recovering-meth callers made a really good point saying that the only reason it's made it to the big cities and is getting publicity now is because all the people that lived in the small towns that became addicts had to move to metro areas because it's easier to be homeless in the city, more people to beg from. They move to the city and take the meth with them...
Posted by: melanie at August 11, 2005 09:55 PM
I just read this story on NPR. It talks about 'Meth Mouth' which I had never heard of. People who are considering giving that crap a try should read it. On second thought, I smoked for a bunch of years and pictures of crusty lungs didn't disuade me...
Posted by: Chris aka Not Sally at August 12, 2005 04:56 AM