|
|
Meth: The New Crank of the 80’s and Drug Treatment Center “Killer” of Today."Mom, was it fun growing up in the eighties?” My 13-year-old son asked me this morning. “Of course, it was fun,” I replied. “I had a blast.” Those of us who experienced the end of the sex, drugs, and rock & roll era did have a great time. However, when the eighties ended, so did our ignorance in terms of the consequences that drugs would have on us and those who loved us. If you were like me, you partied hard as a teen - drinking, smoking pot, and in the small town in Nevada that I grew up in, snorting bathtub crank – Methamphetamine. Shortly after my first Ozzy Osbourne concert in January 1989, my parents drove me out of the fine state of Nevada and dropped me off at the first of many drug treatment centers. I was 18 and the fun had stopped. I had to face the destruction that I had created while using crank. Crank was cheap, cooked in bathtubs, and cut with ephedrine. Back then, it was known as the poor man’s cocaine. Today, crank is almost never found on the streets. Addiction to meth, however, has not disappeared. Drug treatment centers have seen methamphetamine addiction skyrocket as crystal meth, crank’s evil stepchild, has taken hold of many people across the nation. A recent report from the office of Nevada governor Jim Gibbons revealed some alarming statistics. Of those who used drugs, 45% of adults, 41% of adolescents and 82% of pregnant or parenting women reported crystal meth as their drug of choice. Per capita, Nevada has the highest meth use statistics in the nation. Nevada was number one in the nation for crank abuse in my youth as well. I don’t know what it is about the high desert that has created this phenomenon. Meth is usually smoked or injected, so the high is immediate. Hallucinations and paranoia can occur once the drug is in the system. Meth speeds up the aging process. It destroys your teeth. Skin is picked at until sores appear. Internal organs are ravaged. But even then, the addiction doesn’t go away. Attending a drug treatment center is almost inevitable for the meth addict. Unfortunately, the number of meth addicts far outweighs the resources available in the U.S. This creates a problem for society, the likes of which have never been seen before. The meth addiction rates every state in America is shocking. It ranks with poverty, hunger and illiteracy in terms of this country’s major problems. To make things worse most programs are not very successful at providing complete and lasting rehabilitation. However, overcoming meth addiction is possible. Some drug treatment centers are more successful than others. So when seeking a facility, it is important to ask about its success rate. The higher the success rate, the more likely it is that their methods will work. After going through several drug treatment centers in the early 90’s, I found one that worked at http://www.vistabay.com. Now, I have my own teenager who is so eager to ask me about my youth, so curious about drugs, so interested in everything that made the 80’s a blast for me, including the music. At least he asks questions. I can say this: he will not go through his teenage years ignorant of the effects of drugs and their consequences.
About the Author: |
|
 |
