Montana meth ads

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

Everyone else seems to have horror stories in connection with meth, but I don’t. I had about 6 or 7 good friends back in the 90s, when it was starting to get big, who did meth. Two of them were even dealers for a while. None of them died, and even the guy who had actual mental problems from a chemical imbalance prior to using ended up okay. (He’s on prescription meds for that now. He was obviously self-medicating for an attention disorder and depression.) One is a successful opera singer, one runs a non-profit, two are in business making about three times what I do in a year or more, and I’ve lost track of the others over the years, but considering how long that was after we all got out of the party scene, I doubt they’re poster children for an anti-meth campaign.

Meth is not magically different from other drugs. It’s not “more evil” than alcohol, or heroin, or tobacco, though the side effects of steady use are definitely severe. I’ve seen enough people over the years who have done some serious drugs and yet can walk away when it’s not party time to know that no drug is an instant hook. I’ve never had a problem with any drugs either, and with my family history I should be an instant addict, just add alcohol (or your pick of any other substance) if the propaganda was true at all. I have done more than my share of experimenting. I know only a couple people out of a fairly large group I used to hang out with who had any serious problems. Other people’s experiences may be different, but these are mine.

If you’re going to be an addict, you’re going to be an addict, no matter what drug you pick. But there are plenty of people who can just do drugs for fun and have real lives, steady jobs, and no addictions.

62

I can’t speak for everyone else but the biggest problem I see with meth isn’t on an individual basis (I was able to walk away from it after a few times myself, of course I know a fair number of people who are sucked up tweekers too) but the impact it has on a neighborhood.

Burglary is a huge problem where I am because of this shit. I’ve had to run tweekers off my property more than once - rummaging through my garage. I suspect the woman across the street does more than deal, and besides that it attracts a lot of scumbags to my area. Her little girl goes unfed a lot of the time; I feed her once in a while. Calling the cops does jack shit - what cop in LA county wants to come out to the sticks? None.

I have no doubt someone who’s used it can be a perfectly upstanding citizen - I’m one of them - but for every one like that there’s an asshole tweeker with nothing to lose, and meth labs to support their habits.

63

This is a good point. Something like 80% of the crime in my city comes down to meth and tweekers. Granted, a good number of them would probably do some other drug, but it’s no fun for us. We’re rural-ish, and the small towns around us are doing much worse than we are with meth and crime. The labs (and accompanying fires and poisoned houses) are starting to decline–because with the new difficulty of getting some ingredients, gangs from Mexico are moving into the business and creating new and different problems. Lovely.