Archive for May 2011
- In: Uncategorized
- Leave a Comment
Gila River police arrest meth dealer Date:2011-05-15T11:55:35Z
http://www.wmicentral.com/police/gila-river-police-arrest-meth-dealer/article_5bd40d16-7cd5-11e0-bdc6-001cc4c002e0.html
Waterloo woman sent to federal prison for selling meth Date:2011-05-04T22:52:52Z
http://www.kwwl.com/story/14574127/waterloo-woman-sent-to-federal-prison-for-selling-meth
Oregon meth-related deaths jump 22 percent in 2010, most in a decade Date:2011-05-13T00:30:45Z
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2011/05/meth-related_deaths_jump_22_pe_1.html
Glendale police lead investigation to indict meth dealer Date:2011-04-26T23:59:37Z
http://www.glendalestar.com/news/headlines/article_4d4aa642-70dc-11e0-833f-001cc4c002e0.html
217 pounds of meth seized, largest bust in AZ history Date:2011-05-18T00:31:59Z
http://www.kold.com/story/14621686/az-highway-patrol-officers-make-one-of-the-biggest-meth-busts-in-arizona-history
On the Books Date:2011-05-04T05:13:27Z
http://www.mtstandard.com/news/local/article_af154c74-7604-11e0-8526-001cc4c002e0.html
3 Guilty of Trying to Trade Drugs for Missiles Date:2011-05-02T22:55:15Z
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/justice/Drug-Cartel-Missile-5-2-2011
Two Mexican nationals plead guilty to conspiracy to acquire “Stinger” missile and other military-grade weapons
Date:2011-05-04T07:07:59Z
http://www.wmicentral.com/police/two-mexican-nationals-plead-guilty-to-conspiracy-to-acquire-stinger/article_f132eb7e-759c-11e0-9681-001cc4c03286.html
U.S. Border Patrol Weekly Blotter April 28 – May 4 Date:2011-05-09T02:15:43Z
http://www.rightsidenews.com/2011050913467/us/homeland-security/us-border-patrol-weekly-blotter-april-28-may-4.html
DPS seizes nearly $4 million worth of meth near Gila Bend Date:2011-05-12T11:23:21Z
http://www.azfamily.com/news/DPS-seizes-nearly-4-million-worth-of-meth-near-Gila-Bend-121640854.html
Arizona Meth Project is working
Posted on: May 19, 2011
- In: Uncategorized
- Leave a Comment
By Arizona Attorney General “Terry Goddard
Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley
and Navajo Nation first lady Vikki
Co-chairs of the “Arizona Meth Project
Sept. 24, 2007 08:25 AM
Last week we kicked off the second phase of the Arizona Meth Project’s media campaign. This is a milestone because Arizona is the second state in the United States that has implemented this mass-media youth prevention and education campaign featuring an evolution of gritty ads that graphically depict the horrors of methamphetamine use and anchored by the memorable “Not Even Once” slogan.
We started this campaign last April, following the great success achieved by the Montana Meth Project, an effort that is now in its second year. Since Montana launched its effort, workplace drug-testing data shows that meth use has declined 70 percent and meth-related crime has declined 53 percent.
We are hoping for similar positive results here in Arizona, but we have a tough road ahead of us. The 2006 Arizona Youth Survey reported that more than 4 percent of Arizona youths have used meth at least once, twice the national average and the reason for creating the Arizona Meth Project.
A separate youth survey conducted by the meth project this spring showed that teens and young adults are not convinced of the dangers of meth use. In fact, many responded that meth had beneficial uses, like weight loss. This same survey revealed that one in six young adults has tried the drug, one in 25 teens has tried the drug, and one in four teens says friends would not give him or her a hard time for trying meth. With these types of numbers, it is no surprise that in Arizona 65 percent of child-abuse cases and 75 percent of property- and violent-crime cases are linked to meth.
Rural counties are suffering more than urban areas in Arizona, and some of our state’s Native American communities are experiencing serious problems. For example, the 2006 Arizona Youth Survey found that 10.1 percent of eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders in Navajo County have used meth at least once. This number is higher than any other county in the state. Since its launch, the Arizona Meth Project has been well-received. Recently, we unveiled the “Not Even Once Youth Pledge,” a statewide grass-roots manifestation of the prevention message. This effort captured names and personal commentary from young people across Arizona who committed themselves to never try meth even once.
The symbolic signing of the pledge was most importantly a public and private acknowledgement of the meth problem in our community, highlighting more than 10,000 participants statewide. The youth comments written by pledge participants included poignant observations and personal experience. One young person wrote, “I have a baby brother that’s a crystal-meth baby. His mother took crystal meth. I will never take drugs.” Another young girl, whose very young age is evident by her penmanship and spelling, writes, “Meth is verey bad for you body and it can mean deth to you.”
Such honest perspective and major response from young people reaffirms that Phase 2 of the Arizona Meth Project is a much-needed prevention effort. The meth project public-awareness campaign was launched with $5.3.million in contributions from 10 Arizona counties, some private dollars and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Continuation of the campaign beyond the end of the year will depend on additional financial support from both the public and private sectors.
To keep on track, Phase 3 ads are scheduled to air in the spring of 2008.
Solving Arizona’s methamphetamine problem will require a strong commitment to a comprehensive approach that combines law enforcement, prevention, education, treatment and support from the private sector.
The Arizona Meth Project wishes to acknowledge the support of the many anti-meth coalitions across the state, the Arizona Meth Project’s advisory board members and the local leaders who are responsive to the Meth problem in our state.
For more information, to get involved or to see the new ads, please visit the Arizona Meth Project Web site at http://www.arizonamethproject.org or call (602) 373-METH (6384). Outside Maricopa County, call toll-free at 1-866-773-8999.
Crystal Meth Facts
Posted on: May 19, 2011
What Is Crystal Meth?
The chemical n-methyl-1-phenyl-propan-2-amine is called methamphetamine, methylamphetamine, or desoxyephedrine. The shortened name is simply ‘meth’. When it is in its crystalline form, the drug is called crystal meth, ice, Tina, or glass. See the table below for other street names of the drug. Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant.
How Is Crystal Meth Used?
Usually crystal meth is smoked in glass pipes, similar to how crack cocaine is used. It may be injected (either dry or dissolved in water), snorted, swallowed, or inserted into the anus or urethra.
Why Is Crystal Meth Used?
Females often take crystal meth because it can cause extremely rapid weight loss. However, the effects are short term. The body builds up a tolerance to the drug so weight loss tapers off and stops around six weeks after taking the drug. Also, weight that is lost is regained once a person stops taking methamphetamine. For these reasons, combined with how addictive the drug is, methamphetamine tends not to be prescribed by doctors for weight loss.
Some people take meth because of the long-lasting high that it gives. Methamphetamine causes numerous neurotransmitters to be released in the brain, producing a sense of euphoria that may last as long as 12 hours, depending on how the drug was taken.
Methamphetamine is popular as a stimulant. As a stimulant, methamphetamine improves concentration, energy, and alertness while decreasing appetite and fatigue.
Methamphetamines are also taken by people who are feeling depressed. They may be taken for their side effect of increasing libido and sexual pleasure.
What Are the Effects of Methamphetamine Use?This is a list of effects associated with pure methamphetamine use. Because of how it’s made, crystal meth is never pure, so the dangers associated with taking the street drug extend beyond these effects.
Common Immediate Effects
•Euphoria
•Increased energy and alertness
•Diarrhea and nausea
•Excessive sweating
•Loss of appetite, insomnia, tremors, jaw-clenching
•Agitation, irritability, talkativeness, panic, compulsive fascination with repetitive tasks, violence, confusion
•Increased libido
•Increased blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, blood sugar levels, bronchodilation
•Constriction of the walls of the arterties
•In pregnant and nursing women, methampetamine crosses the placenta and is secreted in breast milk
Effects Associated with Chronic Use •Tolerance (needing more of the drug to get the same effect)
•Drug craving
•Temporary weight loss
•Withdrawal symptoms including depression and anhedonia
•”Meth Mouth” where teeth rapidly decay and fall out
•Drug-related psychosis (may last for months or years after drug use is discontinued)
Effects of Overdose •Brain damage
•Sensation of flesh crawling (formication)
•Paranoia, hallucinations, delusions, tension headache
•Muscle breakdown (rhabdomyolysis) which can lead to kidney damage or failure
•Death due to stroke, cardiac arrest or elevated body temperature (hyperthermia)
Where Does Crystal Meth Come From?
Methamphetamine is available with a prescription for obesity, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and narcolepsy, but crystal meth is a street drug, made in illegal labs by chemically altering over-the-counter drugs. Making crystal meth usually involves reducing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, found in cold and allergy medicine. In the US, a typical meth lab employs something called the ‘Red, White, and Blue Process’, which entails hydrogenation of the hydroxyl group on the ephedrine or pseudoephedrine molecule. The red is red phosphorus, white is the ephedrine or pseudoephedrine, and blue is iodine, used to make hydroiodic acid. Making crystal meth is dangerous to the people making it and dangerous to the neighborhood where it’s being made. White phosphorus with sodium hydroxide can produce poisonous phosphine gas, usually as a result of overheating red phosphorus, plus white phosphorus can autoignite and blow up the meth lab. In addition to phosphine and phosphorus, various hazardous vapors may be associated with a meth lab, such as chloroform, ether, acetone, ammonia, hydrochloric acid, methylamine, iodine, hydroiodic acid, lithium or sodium, mercury, and hydrogen gas.
Street Names for Crystal Meth
Batu
Biker’s Coffee
Black Beauties
Blade
Chalk
Chicken Feed
Crank
Cristy
Crystal
Crystal Glass
Crystal Meth
Glass
Go-Fast
Hanyak
Hiropon
Hot Ice
Ice
Kaksonjae
L.A. Glass
L.A. Ice
Meth
Methlies Quick
Poor Man’s Cocaine
Quartz
Shabu
Shards
Speed
Stove Top
Super Ice
Tina
Trash
Tweak
Uppers
Ventana
Vidrio
Yaba
Yellow Bam
By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., About.com Guide
I’m your Qualifier
I want to introduce myself to you; I’m your qualifier and the reason you’re here. You believe just because you gave me life and raised me that you know me…but you really don’t. I’d like to use this time to introduce the real me to you so maybe you can gain a better understanding of why I am the way I am, why I do the things I do and why I’ve done some of the things I’ve done. I don’t know if I was born an addict but I do know the first time I got high and addict was born.
First of all you have to accept the fact that I think differently than you do. Some of this will make sense to you and some of this will sound like excuses that you’ve heard before, but just know that the ones that sound like excuses are based on my fact, my perspective and the knowledge and experience of the people who are trying to help me get clean. These are people I have placed my trust and faith in because all they want from me is to succeed in my endeavor to stay clean for another day. You have you own goals for me like going to college, getting a job, getting married and finally having kids so you can have grandkids and can show all of your friends their pictures. See these are your goals for me and not necessarily my goals for myself.
Let me try to explain how I see things. See, you think I have a drug problem but I don’t; I have a living problem. You think I use drugs but the reality is that the drugs use me. Drugs are for those of us that can’t handle reality, and reality is for people like you that can’t handle their drugs. To me Reality is a nice place to visit but I really don’t like living there. I live in constant fear of letting you down; of not living up to your expectations. I put off doing things out of fear and you call me a procrastinator, but procrastination is just a 5 syllable word for fear.
Drugs make me feel alive and normal, but they also make me paranoid, incoherent and both destructive and pathetically and relentlessly self-destructive. Then I would do unconscionable things in order to feel normal and alive again. Drugs gave me wings and then slowly took away my sky. I looked to drugs for courage and they made me a coward. You say that I had always been a sensitive, perceptive, joyful and exceptionally bright child, but on drugs I became unrecognizable. You should try looking in the mirror and not knowing the reflection looking back at you. I long for the day I am able to look in the mirror and be OK with the person I see looking back.
Like all kids, when I was really young I used to think there was a monster in my closet and under my bed and you would come into my room and reassure me that there wasn’t one by opening the closet and looking under the bed. Now that I am older you can’t convince me of that anymore and it’s not your job to. But since I found drugs I’ve come to the realization that there is a monster; but it’s not in my closet or under the bed but inside of me, and that if I can’t learn to ignore it, it will destroy me.
When I first started getting high it was pleasurable for awhile; I had finally experienced nirvana, and then the euphoria wore off and I began to see the ugly side of my using and I experienced hell. I found the higher the drugs got me the lower they brought me. After awhile I faced 2 choices, either I could suffer the pain of withdrawal or take more drugs. I did the withdrawal thing more times than you’ll ever know and it’s not pleasurable at all; in fact it’s just the opposite. If you remember there were times where I said I couldn’t go to school or work because I had the flu, but more times than not it was because I was going through withdrawal. I guess the best way to describe withdrawal is insuperable depression and acute anxiety — a drawn-out agony. Some of the times I choose withdrawal because I didn’t want to use anymore, that I hated who I had become, but
for the most part it was because I didn’t have a choice in the matter…I had run out of drugs. You would think that after experiencing the emotional and physical pain of withdrawal that I would never let myself go through that again…right? See that’s how you see it, but to me it just became a part of my using and a consequence I was willing to pay. You may call that insanity…I call that life.
I’ve been to enough meetings to know the readings by heart and one of the phrases that jumps out at me every time I hear it, is: “when we use drugs we are slowly committing suicide”. I never thought of it that way but now I totally understand what it means…but still I use. I’m sure you remember the show Mash; it was pretty popular when you were growing up. The theme song is actually titled “suicide is painless” and in its context, I’m sure it’s true. But the slow suicide of my using is not painless in the least; I feel the pain and can see the flame of my life getting fainter every time I use.
All those times you yelled at me for my using you gave me exactly what I needed to feed my addiction. You thought you were doing it out of love but you were actually justifying to me what my mind had convinced me I was a long time ago. I look at myself as a failure; as a complete waste of space. There is a line from a song called Southern Cross and this line defines my past and it goes: “I never failed to fail because it’s the easiest thing to do”. When you yell and scream you just confirm to me that I am a failure and after awhile it becomes common place; not to mention expected. Its one thing if I think of myself as a loser or failure but to know that’s how you see me as well makes it easier for my mind to convince me to use. My basic problem is that I flee from those who want me and I pursue my rejecters.
There are a few things you can do if you really want to help me. I know by telling you these things I’m actually cutting off my main money source…you. I will never stop using as long as you keep giving me money or supporting me. I can only stop using when I hit my bottom and only I can put down the shovel and quit digging. When you bail me out, buy me a car, pay for my rent or give me money you aren’t helping me at all; you are only handing me the shovel again and telling me to keep digging. You keep letting me come back home to live because you think you’re helping me out but if your honest, you’ll realize that you are doing it for purely selfish reasons. When you know I’m in the room next door you sleep better. The last thing I’ll confess to you is the real reason I steal from you. I steal from you because I’m counting on you not calling the cops on me. I count on you not wanting me to go to jail; to have a criminal record. I steal from you because you keep letting me move back home.
You make the mistake of thinking that recovery is simply a matter of not drinking or using drugs. And you consider a relapse a sign of complete failure and long periods of abstinence a complete success. But these perceptions are too simplistic. My life is anything but simple and I’m not just talking about my using drugs. The way my mind works, nothing is as easy as just doing it because my mind tries to convince me not to do it. It doesn’t matter how simple of a task it is…even unloading the dishwasher is a mind struggle for me. My mind also loves to make every little thing that goes wrong a major crisis. Let me try to explain this in as simple terms as I possibly can. Let’s say we both go outside in the morning and our cars don’t start. You go in and call a mechanic and I go in and call suicide prevention. I’m what they call a W.C.S person; which stands for worst case scenario. They say a mind is a terrible thing to waste; well my mind is a terrible thing to listen to. Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be…mine won’t let me be happy. My mind
keeps reminding me that there is only 18 inches between a halo and a noose.
Relapse isn’t a requirement but it does happen to quite a few addicts. The hard truth is that if there were 50 addicts in their 1st meeting together, more of us will be dead in 5 years that will have 5 years clean. The last time I relapsed it was because the bottom fell out faster than I could lower my standards. It’s really difficult to solve a problem with the same mind that created it and God knows I’ve created a lot of problems for myself…and for you. I hope some day you will realize that I am not a bad person trying to get good; I’m a sick person trying to get well. I suffer from the disease of addiction. If you believe this you won’t be so critical of me. For a critic is just a person who goes onto the battlefield after the battle has been fought and shoots the survivors. Believe me when I say this; I don’t want to be an addict as much as you wish you weren’t a parent of one.
What Addicts Do
Posted on: May 19, 2011
- In: Uncategorized
- Leave a Comment
My name’s Jon. I’m an addict. And this is what addicts do. You cannot nor will not change my behavior. You cannot make me treat you better, let alone with any respect. All I care about, all I think about, is my needs and how to go about fufilling them. You are a tool to me, something to use. When I say I love you I am lying through my teeth, because love is impossible for someone in active addiction. I wouldn’t be using if I loved myself, and since I don’t, I cannot love you.
My feelings are so pushed down and numbed by my drugs that I could be considered sociopathic. I have no empathy for you or anyone else. It doesn’t faze me that I hurt you, leave you hungry, lie to you, cheat on you and steal from you.
My behavior cannot and will not change until i make a decison to stop using/drinking and then follow it up with a plan of action.
And until I make that decsion, I will hurt you again and again and again.
Stop being surprised.
I am an addict. And that’s what addicts do.
Public information (http://open-mind.org/cgi-bin/FF/board.pl?action=showMessage&id=805)
The News series, “A journey to disaster,” is a sad but much-needed wake-up call on the dangers of addiction. Untreated, this disease, which afflicts one in 10 Americans, wreaks havoc on our families and communities, and costs too many lives each year. To combat addiction, we must give prevention and treatment the attention and funding they deserve.
To that end, New Yorkers—and all Americans—would do well to urge their leaders to support strong implementation of the historic Wellstone/Domenici Parity Act of 2008 and health care reform law, which require equal coverage of substance use prevention and treatment.
Just like diabetes and heart disease, addiction is a potentially fatal disease that we can, and should, work to prevent. It’s the only way to save the William Jakobis, Victoria Eikenburgs and Adam Tafelskis of the future.
Paul N. Samuels
Director and President Legal Action Center New York City
The following two letters are from a female addict named Mel. She wrote the first letter upon finding my site, and the second after she realized that my own daughter, Kathy, had passed away.
Posted on: May 15, 2011
MEL’S FIRST LETTER – Hi all. I am a beautiful (on the outside) intelligent, slim, and loving 24 year old female who some might think has everything in the world going for her. But one small problem impedes me… I am a heroin addict. God the pain and horror my family and I have suffered over this awful gut-wrenching, mind crushing prick of a disease/addiction whatever you wanna call it.
I am a middle class Australian girl who loves her caring wonderful family with all her heart, but sadly fell into heroin addiction without abandon about 8 years ago. My mother and father have been through the works, rehab, detoxes, helping with money then food etc etc etc. Thank God I have managed to scrape myself out of the gutter and get clean on methadone a couple of years ago and have not taken heroin for about a year, but am so so scared that this may yet happen.
All I can say is it is possible to be clean after years of addiction. Before I went clean (well as clean as methadone means) I had a $1000 a day habit and was having to sleep with several men every night for my next day’s fix. I am now at UNI, and while not totally happy, and still fighting the cravings, I am clean for now and wish you all the best. If anyone needs help, support, an insight into an addicted mind, or whatever please email me at badcats@dingoblue.ney.au
I am here,
Mel
MEL’S SECOND LETTER – What can I say except I am so so sorry. I am glad you have a God you can turn to for comfort. I am glad you have the knowledge you did everything you could to help your daughter. But I am so sorry it ended like this.
Maybe this is a good thing for you to hear: as a 24 year old heroin addict who has been using drugs since she was 13 and heroin since 15, your page made me cry harder than most things have ever made me cry. Your pain echoes my parents and God I am so sorry for that.
I wish I could be perfect.
I wish I could stay clean for ever.
I wish I was a better person.
But I am clean for now, and at UNI after using and being a prostitute for a very long time. It is so very hard, most people seem to hate me if they even guess of my past. A bad woman is a bad woman in their opinion. But please never question sharing yourselves online, you have offered me not only sadness, but hope that I can do someone proud, even if I save my parents from feeling some of the pain you felt and never find my own place in society, even if I live clean but unhappy for the rest of my days, your story gives me another perspective and it will take a huge amount to make me use again.
Thanks again,
Melanie
Australia
A Letter From Your Drug of Choice
Posted on: May 15, 2011
Dear Friend,
I’ve come to visit once again. I love to see you suffer mentally physically spiritually and socially. I want to have you restless so you can never relax. I want you jumpy and nervous and anxious. I want to make you agitated and irritable so everything and everybody makes you uncomfortable. I want you to be depressed and confused so that you can’t think clearly or positively. I want to make you hate everything and everybody-especially yourself. I want you to feel guilty and remorseful for the the things you have done in the past that you’ll never be able to let go. I want to make you angry and hateful toward the world for the way it is and the way you are. I want you to feel sorry for yourself and blame everything but your addiction for the way things are. I want you to be deceitful and untrustworthy, and to manipulate and con as many people as possible. I want to make you fearful and paranoid for no reason at all and I want you to wake up during all hours of the night screaming for me. You know you can’t sleep without me; I’m even in your dreams.
I want to be the first thing you wake up to every morning and the last thing you touch before you black out. I would rather kill you, but I’ll be happy enough if I can put you back in the hospital, another institution or jail. But you know that I’ll still be waiting for you when you come out. I love to watch you slowly going insane. I love to see all the physical damage that I’m causing you. I can’t help but sneer and chuckly when you shiver and shake, when you freeze and sweat at the same time, when you wake up with your sheets and blankets soaking wet.
It’s amazing how much destruction I can do to your internal organs while at the same time, work on your brain, destroying it bit by bit. I deeply appreciate how much you sacrifice for me.
The countless good jobs you have sacrificed for me. All the fine friends that you deeply cared for-you gave them up for me. And what’s more, for the ones you turned against yourself because of your inexcusable actions-I am more than grateful.
And especially your loved ones, your family, and the most important people in the world to you. You even threw them away for me. I cannot express in words the gratitiude I have for the loayalty you have for me. You sacrificed all these beautiful things in your life just to devote yourself completely to me. But do not despair my friend, for on me you can always depend. For after you have lost all these things, you can still depend on me to take even more. You can depend on me to keep you in living hell, to keep your mind, body and soul. FOR I WILL NOT BE SATISFIED UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD, MY FRIEND.
Faithfully yours,
Your addiction and drug of choice
I Am Addicted 2 
Recent Comments