July 29/2004
By Marvin Robertson
Miner Staff Writer
KINGMAN – A high school beauty queen makes a choice to use meth one time.
Eight years later, no longer beautiful and without family, job or education, she becomes one of the lucky few who kick the habit.
A 15-year-old boy makes the choice to try meth one time.
He takes several years to kick the addiction begun by that one-time use.
A young mother with three children in school, a husband, a good job and a home in an upscale neighborhood gains some weight. Her girlfriend says a little meth will help lose the weight and regain that youthful figure.
Not long after, she has lost her husband and her job and is cooking meth in the basement while the children are at school.
“It happens in every economic group, every neighborhood and every age group,” Suzanne Clarke said. Clarke is director of the Kingman Aid for Abused People, a shelter program for women and children in abused relationships.
“Studies in several states have identified a profile of young mothers, married with children in good neighborhoods, as meth and drug users,” Clarke said.
“The meth gives them the high and the energy to fulfill that super mom role.
“They can run the home, stay beautiful, be a good wife and succeed in their occupation.”
Clarke said the longest she has seen someone remain awake and energized on meth – short for methamphetamines – is 20 days. What starts as a temporary high or a crutch to lose weight becomes an addiction that controls life.
A young man who has kicked the habit with the help of treatment and family support said meth becomes a way of life.
“Treatment. Quitting. Good luck,” he said. “Only 6 percent ever shake meth. Now I know that playing around with meth the first time was enough to make me an addict.”
He said he dreamed about meth and found it so easy and cheap that getting more was a piece of cake. “They try it once, and 97 percent then make it a way of life,” he said.
A local mother has survived addictive parents and siblings and an addictive husband.
“Alanon showed me that my addiction was fixing other people,” she said. “I was always available to support them, take them places and take care of them.”
She said she kicked the enabler role and became strong enough to take care of her own needs without feeling guilty or selfish.
She learned to recognize the symptoms, the difficulty of ever “solving” the addiction of others, and how to cope with the reality of life as it happens.
She still deals with the addictions of her parents, one who has been sober for long periods but made a single slip. They can go from several years of sobriety to one day of sobriety after a single misstep.
Clarke said almost everyone cared for at the KAAP shelter has been exposed to drug abuse.
It is sometimes difficult to see whether the drugs caused the problem or began as a way to cope with the domestic situation, she added.
City Attorney Bob Taylor said drugs are either the charge or involved in the majority of city court cases for domestic violence and DUI cases.
What some consider a “victimless” crime – using illegal drugs by choice – makes victims of users, their families and the community.
“I almost lost my son,” one mother said.
“I lost my spouse and family,” said another woman.
“I see abused children who are victims of both parents using drugs,” Clarke said.
The common denominator is the frustration and helplessness expressed by users, families, parents, police and the agencies that try to help them all.
“I see a society divided between those who choose drugs as a way of life and those who choose not to use drugs,” said one young man, a recovering meth addict.
Link
By Marvin Robertson
Miner Staff Writer
KINGMAN – A high school beauty queen makes a choice to use meth one time.
Eight years later, no longer beautiful and without family, job or education, she becomes one of the lucky few who kick the habit.
A 15-year-old boy makes the choice to try meth one time.
He takes several years to kick the addiction begun by that one-time use.
A young mother with three children in school, a husband, a good job and a home in an upscale neighborhood gains some weight. Her girlfriend says a little meth will help lose the weight and regain that youthful figure.
Not long after, she has lost her husband and her job and is cooking meth in the basement while the children are at school.
“It happens in every economic group, every neighborhood and every age group,” Suzanne Clarke said. Clarke is director of the Kingman Aid for Abused People, a shelter program for women and children in abused relationships.
“Studies in several states have identified a profile of young mothers, married with children in good neighborhoods, as meth and drug users,” Clarke said.
“The meth gives them the high and the energy to fulfill that super mom role.
“They can run the home, stay beautiful, be a good wife and succeed in their occupation.”
Clarke said the longest she has seen someone remain awake and energized on meth – short for methamphetamines – is 20 days. What starts as a temporary high or a crutch to lose weight becomes an addiction that controls life.
A young man who has kicked the habit with the help of treatment and family support said meth becomes a way of life.
“Treatment. Quitting. Good luck,” he said. “Only 6 percent ever shake meth. Now I know that playing around with meth the first time was enough to make me an addict.”
He said he dreamed about meth and found it so easy and cheap that getting more was a piece of cake. “They try it once, and 97 percent then make it a way of life,” he said.
A local mother has survived addictive parents and siblings and an addictive husband.
“Alanon showed me that my addiction was fixing other people,” she said. “I was always available to support them, take them places and take care of them.”
She said she kicked the enabler role and became strong enough to take care of her own needs without feeling guilty or selfish.
She learned to recognize the symptoms, the difficulty of ever “solving” the addiction of others, and how to cope with the reality of life as it happens.
She still deals with the addictions of her parents, one who has been sober for long periods but made a single slip. They can go from several years of sobriety to one day of sobriety after a single misstep.
Clarke said almost everyone cared for at the KAAP shelter has been exposed to drug abuse.
It is sometimes difficult to see whether the drugs caused the problem or began as a way to cope with the domestic situation, she added.
City Attorney Bob Taylor said drugs are either the charge or involved in the majority of city court cases for domestic violence and DUI cases.
What some consider a “victimless” crime – using illegal drugs by choice – makes victims of users, their families and the community.
“I almost lost my son,” one mother said.
“I lost my spouse and family,” said another woman.
“I see abused children who are victims of both parents using drugs,” Clarke said.
The common denominator is the frustration and helplessness expressed by users, families, parents, police and the agencies that try to help them all.
“I see a society divided between those who choose drugs as a way of life and those who choose not to use drugs,” said one young man, a recovering meth addict.
Link
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
hmmm
