The faces of meth

Once again, a Republican presides silently over an emerging plague.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4230382

That's why I posted these pictures. I guess this meth problem is not a concern everywhere. It has literally devastated neighborhoods here where I live. And as much as I don't like the big brother approach to solving all problems, there clearly needs to be something done about meth and meth labs. There are far too many innocent victims.

Google up images of what longterm meth abuse does to your teeth.

*shudder*

At my school, we have learned to recognize our meth abusing parents by their bad teeth.

The same kind of damage that meth abuse causes can be caused by things like Sjogren's syndrome, some medications that cause dry mouth, and the aftereffects of radiation therapy for oral cancer. (I have no salivary glands left after radiation, and my teeth have that kind of damage.)

Tucker

And we honestly would never assume a parent is a meth head unless there were many other warning signs. This is just one.

I haven't seen you post for a while.

:hi:

Plenty of crack and heroin on our block, though! Seriously. It would take me longer to get a gallon of milk than to get some crack.

and I think the meth problem is a lot worse. It is so much more dangerous. These folks cook meth and their house blows up. If my next door neighbor was selling crack, other than a lot of traffic in front of his house, it wouldn't have much of an effect on me. But if he was cooking meth, my house could blow up or catch on fire when his meth lab explodes.

The latest trend is for these cookers to use motel rooms or put portable labs in the trunks of their cars. In a car, with a minor fender bender, an explosion could result.

That never seems to happen in the city.

addicting shit out there. My niece is a clerk for a police department and these people, they come in and their faces are rotting off. It gives you this HUGE sexual high that lasts and then you crash for three four days. Many are the children of meth heads that run wild or are sexually abused. this is a TERRIBLE epidemic.

Like crack didn't screw it up enough already.

BTW: I love those damn dogs.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1661197#1661295 Another DU outrage thread on more government control of every little thing you do here in Muricah

But this meth explosion is cause for drastic measures.

that the store is taking it upon itself to go beyond the law to get a piece of identification not required.

for an identification.

Epic on SS #
http://www.epic.org/privacy/ssn/

Thanks.

Meth has been around at an epidemic level for over 20 years.

Why blame Bush? Wouldn't Clinton be just as much at fault?

I wonder if this was published in order to persuade people to go along with the new legislation (making pseudoephedrine prescription-only) in Oregon?

I mean, clearly, meth is bad stuff. But making pseudoephedrine -- which is the cheapest and most effective medicine for sinus problems -- prescription-only really does punish innocent people for the crimes of a few.

Of course, maybe the legislation will work beautifully, and meth heads will return to a life of productivity, I dunno.... then it would be worth it. But if it doesn't work, will they put sudafed back on the shelves again?

(All I know is, I've had a sinus headache for three weeks solid and I'd take up weapons if I couldn't have any sudafed...)

Three weeks is not good.

You just can't buy it in large quantities. And in this area, before these laws were passed limiting sales, it was often nearly impossible to buy cold meds. The meth cookers would drive from pharmacy to pharmacy, buying every cold med on the shelves. Now we have to sign for it and show ID, but at least we can buy it.

Three weeks with sinus might mean you have a sinus infection.

This is a sure sign/clue one is a methamphetamine addict. This is evident in our local jails across the nation, that meth addiction is at crisis level.





http://deseretnews.com/dn/view2/1,4382,600140819,00.html

snip>

One of the many problems this drug produces is rampant tooth decay with the teeth literally falling apart."


On a recent afternoon, dentist Richard Johnson peered into the mouth of a patient and found an all-too-familiar sight: teeth rotten from methamphetamine abuse.

The man lay handcuffed and chained to the dental chair inside the Utah County Jail as Johnson wrenched a forceps into his lower jaw. With considerable effort, he extracted the remnants of the inmate's badly decayed tooth. Piece by piece, he removed bits of a broken bicuspid.

"There are 28 teeth," said Johnson, a veteran dentist at both the Utah State Prison and the Utah County Jail. "There are 26 of them that need to be extracted sometimes, and sometimes you just have to dig 'em out." Johnson joins other dentists who say the meth mouth problem is growing.

A few weeks ago, Johnson pulled seven soft, black teeth out of another inmate's mouth. A week later, he pulled out four more from the same inmate's mouth. That patient, too, abused methamphetamine.
Dentists in private practice and public health clinics also see people whose meth addiction has eaten away their choppers. Men and women in their 20s are having to wear dentures.

Dr. Robert Anderson shows Deseret Morning News reporters and photographers the teeth of inmate Colby Anderson at the Davis County Jail.

Laura Seitz, Deseret Morning News, " They look like someone shot a gun through their mouths," said Dr. Richard G. Ellis, who volunteers at Salt Lake Donated Dental Services. "It just destroys them." To each of his patients, he asks: "Are you a meth user?" "The answer is 'yes,' 75 percent to 80 percent of the time," Ellis said. "It's just classic destruction."

Ellis has peered into thousands of mouths in his 45 years as a dentist, including some in Peru and Bolivia. Patients he sees at the Salt Lake Donated Dental Services rival those he saw in South America where good oral hygiene isn't practiced. " The meth people that we have coming in compare dentally to what we saw in Third World countries," he said.

or lungs? Scary.

believe in the soul, cuz that really seem to be lacking one. very creepy stuff.

It's some truely scarry shit. It's cheap super addictive and uh, did I mention you can make it at home? As some one stated it's a new plauge that it destroying rural communities.

America, can be seen by watching federal thugs on their recent crusade to stomp on medical marijuana outlets and associates while ZIP SHIT is done to kill the meth epidemic. This "administration" is thoroughly contemptible, as are their enablers in the major media (which includes NPR).

Gyre

and new laws are being proposed. So someone in Washington is trying to deal with this. The reason many folks cannot buy large quantities of cold meds is partly the result of this legislation.

That's the only explanation I can imagine why he thought bombing OKC was a good idea. Huge problem and growing larger every day. I saw an article a few weeks ago on one of the networks on methamphetamine abuse in Oklahoma. Out of hundreds of children removed from meth lab homes by Child Protective Services in the past 8 years, only one parent is reported to have rehabilitated enough to quality to get her kids back. Nasty, nasty, killer drug.

That is very interesting, considering many meth cookers are also gun nuts.

Sorry, I know meth is bad, but there is NO EXCUSE for requiring a SNN to purchase cold medicine.

In fact, legal precedent goes against that requirment.

a driver's license would be enough ID.

There are other medication choices OTC and per script. In retospect, former script drugs were put out onto the counter for easy purchase because physician offices were too expensive and over crowed for simple homecare treatment.....now, it's back to square one.

And spending it on treatment for these people and help for these poor children? :think:

and actually caring about people, sounds pretty damn lbrul to me.

for upper middle class, white, Christian children. The rest of of 'em, well, let's blame their stupid, poor, drug addict parents (gee, at least they didn't have an abortion, but of course for poor people in rural areas, that's already barely an option). Nope, society as a whole owes them nothing and that'll teach 'em. Great for "Merica" on a long term basis too. :thumbsup:

:sarcasm:

I would also like to see the money put into finding out what is causing this rampant addiction to meth.

and there is a lot of money to be made from it.

Yet here it is and not everyone is on it. I would be curious if there is a set of factors which precipitate its usage among certain populations: lack of education, lack of health care and/or untreated mental health issues, former or concurrent physical or mental abuse by parents/partners.

Maybe we can not just cut off the supply but intervene? :)

EDIT: Clarity

Or cocaine in the 80's. That's my theory anyway (in part anyway). That great, American notion of work, work, work until you drop from being sick or dead. Rest is for the weak. Not to mention the ensuing corporate mentality built upon such notions that drive our entire society- even worse for those who are poor with less skilled jobs. I suspect it starts off with people needing help to keep up or just as an escape. Then it spirals into a destruction of their entire lives. Sad. :(

I would say that it's a lot like crack or heroin: 90% of users are just totally without hope.

And there's not much you can do about that.

Seriously?

I grant there are people who just want to use drugs despite the negative consequences.

and institute prohibition, but that's not going to change people's lives.

Until people's lives are better, they will find ways to throw their lives away, and meth just makes it very, very easy.

I think we should try to improve people's lives, even to a small extent.

I couldn't agree more.

world should be. nothing else is imaginable to you. and whatever it takes to create that world you think should be done, because......you only see one way of living. the right way. your way

amazing pictures in so many ways. there is such a story in all these pictures, we wont even begin to touch. because we wont try to understand what is going on here. because then......there might be empathy. not anger hate or fear, but empathy. and empathy is the only thing that is going to help this epidemic. in other words, love

can you look at that womans scarred up face and not be repulsed, or hate....i can. i can look at that face and feel such empathy, one with this person. holding the persons hand in love. listening.

yes
a meth person
a scarred person

that is what is going to heal this situation

i can say the same to the good christians that are on their rant too. lecturing me on good christians. as they arent refuse to walk love. both sides walk away from love (as they preach it) to get their utopia. jesus hung with the prostitute. he did not lecture or reject or hate, he simply loved

i cant help remembering your thread on the two year old that died. i cant get that out of my head. i have spent a lot of time thinking about that thread, your participation adn what you said. it was powerful. it stuck with me.

I don't believe that 2 year old just wandered on to that highway. I had a long conversation with several friends about this story yesterday. We all agreed that a 2 year old would not just wander on to a highway; it would be too frightening. But if this child was hurt or murdered at the hands of an adult, and the interstate highway is a quarter mile away, it sure would be an easy way to cover up a horrific crime.

I also suppose there's a chance we will never really know.

Now if my posts bother you that much, put me on ignore. No big deal to me. :shrug:

Just over the last week in the Atlanta area, a toddler's mother was in the hospital giving birth to a little girl. The toddler was very excited about being a big brother.

He was being watched by neighbors until the mom and family came home with the new baby. Late at night, the little boy got up and wandered outside to a road and was hit by a hit-and-run driver who did not stop.

He was killed. The road was very dark and they think the driver either think they hit a big bump or deer.

I just can't imagine living a quarter mile from an interstate highway and not watching your 2 year old like a hawk.

hurt or injure themselves or others. Now, that is not to say that there are not parents who kill kids and then pass off the deaths as an accident, either.

Just that weird things can and do happen and it's not always the fault of humans.

PS-living near to a major highway with small children should call for an elevated level of vigilance;however, bad things can still happen.

That makes me so mad I am speechless and believe me I am not speechless often!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad:

We had a big problem about 5 years ago but local law enforcement has clamped down on these meth labs enough to drive most of the cookers out of the city. I can tell some real horror stories about kids in these homes.

I'd be scared shitless to tweak myself. I take med to lower my BP, not amp it up. Not many old meth heads.

there is nothing to be scared of. I did Meth a couple times, just to see what it was like. My house was as clean as it's ever been. It's not for me though, I'm more of an old hippy type, pot, mushrooms, introspective drugs ;) Problem with this shit is it's too easy to make, too cheap and too addictive. However, like with all drugs, the first step to stopping rampant abuse is legalization. Get the dealers, the labs, and the drugs off the streets. Someone said above, they can get crack faster than they can a gallon of milk. Sad but true. Take the illegal profit out of the drug trade. Then start treating addicts... it's pretty simple really.

I took mini-whites, RJSs, Preluden and the good stuff in the day but I would be frightened of them today for the same reason as meth: my blood pressure is too damned high anyway. I'd have blood shooting out my ear or something.

But otherwise, I agree with you position totally.

don't. Talking to addicts about harm reduction "strategies" - minimizing the collateral harm from use, decreasing frequency of use, etc. - they consistently say crystal meth quickly becomes an all or nothing proposition. Once they started chasing the dragon, everything was up for grabs. Or, more precisely, everything was redeemable for meth, someway, somehow. Cars, toasters, radios, your neighbors lawn mower, mom's watch, your body...They are clear, from personal experience, that there is no middle ground. I believe them.

I stay away from it. It is a hassle though, to go to the pharmacist if you need an antihistamine.

IIRC it provided a crappy cheap speedy high? If so, what's the big attraction? Why would a jobless person want to get amp'd up anyway? One would think they'd be in a position to take something more soothing--

Question; How hard is it really to get off this stuff? Every drug "epidemic" (coke, heroin, crack, now meth) is touted as "almost immpossible to kick". They can't ALL be impossible to kick. Anybody know how they compare?

I've done it a few times, too. And though I felt like absolute shit after I came down, I didn't damage my body. You can use damned near everything a few times and not hurt yourself. It's addiction that is the problem and one problem we have in this society is that people will not see that addiction does NOT equal drugs. All addiction is harmful. Another thing is, there is a huge difference between Use and Abuse.
Anyways I completely agree with you.

What's sad about this, is the fact that it doesn't require pseudoephedrine. There are other ways of making meth. So they just took cold medicine away from uninsured people for no reason other than making clueless (I don't mean that in a bad way) people feel like they are safer from this evil drug that made it's way into white suburbia.

He says the thing that stands out to him is the deadness in the eyes. Meth kills your soul. The woman, the blonde, she looks like the lady
they profiled in the story. She's struggling to stay well and talking
out. Her brain is swiss cheese from meth. It comes out through your pours, hence the sores.

dopamine. Permanently. That is a scary thought.

My wife recently went to a Meth Summit in Portland. The scariest thing that she came away with is that meth withdrawal almost invariably invlolves severe depression and overall mental numbness. The only way meth addicts can experience pleasure is to use the drug again. There is nothing like methadone for meth addicts.


This article explains how meth effects the neurotransmitters.
http://www.montana.edu/wwwai/imsd/rezmeth/transmit.htm


This CBC article explains it fairly simply.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/drugs/crystalmeth.html

--snip--

Can an addict recover?

Experts say that crystal meth is one of the most addictive street drugs and one of the hardest to treat. Addiction counsellors say the relapse rate of 92 per cent is worse than cocaine.

The withdrawal symptoms, especially the depression and physical agony, are reported by addiction counsellors to be worse than heroin or cocaine, and often addicts will drop out of recovery programs.

This situation is worse in the United States than in Canada because patients in the U.S. usually have inadequate health insurance or none at all. Those American patients in managed care programs are often cut off before treatment is complete. In Canada, however, provincial health insurance and government recovery programs can help the addict recover.

With increasing use of the drug, there are strong indications that users suffer brain damage, including memory impairment and an increasing inability to grasp abstract thoughts. Those who do manage to recover from addiction and retain memory and the ability to function in society are usually subject to some memory gaps and extreme mood swings.

--snip--

a guy we had been in a bowling league with flipped out one night and was beating on his wife. His kids called the cops. He ended up dead on his kitchen floor. He had aimed a gun at the cops when they came in his house. They shot him in front of his kids.

We didn't know the guy well but had bowled with him for several years. He wasn't a drinker and seemed like a nice guy. Our kids had played with his kids at the bowling alley. We hadn't seen him for 3 or 4 years before he died. So we went to the wake and found out he had been doing meth. And it was an open casket. He looked 15 years older than what we remembered. Even our kids noticed that.

:puke:

Does meth cause that?

It's a combination of the toxins present in the drugs and "picker's syndrome" where every little bump or blemish or scab gets fucked with continually because the users are so fidgety. The sores get infected, which makes the users mess with them even more, picking the scabs and squeezing the pus until they just never seem to heal.

Meth is horrible, and being from inland Southern California I've been around it most of my life. Awful, awful stuff.

turn into mumbling, toothless hags. I've seen men committ senseless acts of violence and stupidity.Families broken up, marraiges destroyed, homes lost, jailtime... A tweeker friend of mine died, on the job, of a meth-induced heart attack at 48 yrs old.
There was a period of my life when I would routinely use the "Shit", as its referred to. Living in San Diego, that shit is everywhere. Working at the shipyards here, that shit is everywhere. Its called "Breakfast of Champions" there. Meth does not show up in the pre-employment drug screens that often. Its easy to cleanse your pee of meth. So many dangerous tweekers slip under the radar. But if you smoke a bowl of weed at night and that shows up on your test, well no job for you!

Bad, bad stuff. Worse than Heroin and Crack IMHO.

2001

3 yrs 5 mos later