hilltopics
wednesday, february 21, 2001
in-depth news series
for comments, contact lori o'toole or mindie miller at 864-4854 or editor@kansan.com
8A
Will Rodgers is trying to put his life back together after attempting suicide five years ago. Once an engineer and living a plush life, one drug led to another and soon Rodgers was immersed in meth use. Tormented by depression and drug-induced hallucinations, he eventually shot himself in the face. He survived, but was stripped of his eyesight and senses of smell and taste. Photo by Phil Cauthon/KANSAN
Meth's pull more powerful than addicts' will
Continued from page 1A
Voth said there were a number of rea-sons people started taking meth, and consequently meth addicts come in all ages, classes and backgrounds. Women often take meth to lose weight. College students, truck drivers and workaholics take it to ward off sleep. Young party-goers use it to balance sedative drugs. Athletes use it for instant energy. Poor drug addicts choose meth because it packs more bang for the buck. Rural residents can make it themselves when other drugs don't reach their town.
"Whatever the reason they start, though, it grabs ahold of them and there's nothing they can do to escape." Voth said.
As soon as the white powder hits the blood stream, meth grips the central nervous system for hours, amping up the user's heart rate and blood pressure. The stimulantucks up energy and alertness, making the user feel omnipotent.
Meth does its damage by causing the brain to release dopamine, a natural chemical vital to the brain's limbic region, or so-called pleasure center. After repeated use, the brain cannot release the pleasure chemical without meth.
Standard side effects include loss of
apertite, insomnia, paranoia, hallucinations, aggressive behavior, convulsions, itchy skin, acne and lesions.
Voth said that as the brain recovers from the drug's effects - called "tweaking" by addicts - it could experience virtual schizophrenia.
"People undergo extreme depression and sometimes suicidal feelings
Voth: Said meth users came from all backgrounds.
because they are so severely creaky the drug," he said. "It takes a long, long time for the brain to recover, if it's not permanently impaired."
In street form, methamphetamine — a.k.a. crystal, crank, speed, poor man's coke, junk, cridium, ice, tweak, rocket fuel — is sold as a powder or in small chunks that resemble rock candy. It can be eaten, snorted, mixed with water and injected or smoked with tobacco or marijuana.
The amphetamine pharmacopoeia
Less concentrated forms of meth are available over-the-counter and by prescription to achieve the same palette of effects that drives many to use methamphbetamine.
For example, amphetamines are the No.1 drug prescribed for what physicians call attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, with more than 19 million prescriptions filled last year. They are used to
Face to face with a meth user — what to do:
To support their habits, meth users may resort to crimes ranging from burglary to murder. If you encounter an addict, be wary.
1. Know your distance. Closeness can be no-
1. Keep your distance. Closeness can be perceived as threatening.
2. No bright lights. Addicts are already paranoid. If blinded, they may become violent.
3) Slow your speech and lower your voice.
Addicts already hear sounds at a fast pace and high pitch.
4. Slow your movements. This will minimize an addict misinterpreting your actions.
5. Keep your hands visible. Again, paranoid addicts easily feel threatened.
6) Keep the user talking. Silence often means a user's paranoia has taken over reality and
anyone present can become part of his delusion. Silence can quickly turn in to violence.
sion. Silence can quickly turn in to violence.
treat depression and narcolepsy, while other common amphetamines are prescribed to induce weight loss by suppressing appetite. Most cold medications also contains amphetamine.
Like meth, Voth said, these drugs are powerfully addictive.
"Sudafed's primary action is to constrict blood vessels, which cuts down on congestion." Voth said. "But it also increases pulse rate and makes you more alert, a lot like caffeine. Now take that and multiply it many, many more times and that's what you get with methamphetamine."
— is extracted from cold tablets. Quick and easy methods of converting cold tablets into meth using a few household items are readily available on the Internet.
In fact, the primary active ingredient in many forms of meth - pseudoephedrine
Overcoming a methamphetamine addiction is no easier than passing the proverbial camel through the eye of a needle. Drug counselors like Teresa Scruton say the addiction is as powerful as it is prolific.
That's one reason why the drug is so common. Last year in Kansas, 702 busts were made on labs used to cook meth.
Treating a methed-up life
"Physically, detox is not very dangerous," said Scruton, director of Inpatient Rehabilitation at Options for Adults in Wichita.
"The client's perception is that it's very difficult. If they can tolerate coming down and the terrible agitation that comes with getting off meth or the twitching, the intense paranoia, the feeling that they're going crazy - if they can get that far, usually we can get them into treat-
She said that compared to alcohol detoxification — which can kill a patient — methamphetamine detox is largely a mental struggle.
From pinnacle of success to depths of despair
Before he got hooked on meth, 55-year-old Will Rodgers lived in a dream world of material success.
He and his wife lived with their two sons in the gated Lake Quivira neighborhood near Kansas City, Kan. His engineer's salary - coupled with his wife's income as a psychiatrist - left the couple plenty of disposable income. They enjoyed fine foods, choice wines, expensive clothes.
"We had all the toys. We did whatever we wanted," Rodgers said, "Yeah, it was a real wild time."
Some of Rodgers' wilder times included plenty of alcohol and even some marijuana now and then. Times were good. He had it all under control.
So he thought. But then one drug led to another and Rodgers began taking "uppers" to get him through long workdays. The mood swings induced by balancing one drug with another would be the first cracks in Rodgers' dream world.
Everything started to crumble with marital problems and, soon, divorce.
Two marriages later and estranged from his sons, Rodgers sumk into deep depression. Just two years after his posh lifestyle in Lake Quivira, he found himself in an average apartment, near Kansas City's plaza.
His old hippie-day habits returned and, before long, Rodgers was introduced to the speed of speeds — methamphetamine. He said the drug — made by his meth-cook neighbor — was a welcome escape.
"Back then I got the real clean stuff straight from the cook. The cook knew what he was doing and his stuff hadn't been stepped on," Rodgers said, referring to the practice of diluting the pure drug with powders such as baking soda. "It was great — at first."
In a matter of months, meth became Rodgers' drug of choice. After a year immersed in meth, he would quit his job. Work had become too much of a distraction from his habit. He quickly squandered all of his income and all of his inheritance.
Left with nothing but the excruciating memories of his past, Rodgers was now living for the drug. He became depressive, aggressive and paranoid. Days would go by without food or rest — just more and more meth.
What began as a temporary escape was now a constant state of mind riddled with horrific delusions, such as the demons he saw swooping down out of the black sky that was his apartment's ceiling.
One night, we saw people in the street,
stripping his car's tires and stereo. He
grabbed his shotgun and fired several shots from the porch.
Police later arrived at Rodgers' apartment, inquiring about the gunfire. Though the attempted theft was nothing more than another hallucination, Rodgers' mind believed it was real, and the cops believed his story.
That brush with the police was the least of Rodgers' worries. The demons came more frequently now, paralyzing him with fear and paranoia. Rodgers was living hell.
A fateful week would see Rodgers do nothing more than lie in bed, get up each morning only to stare into the closet for a half hour, and then return to bed. The demons!
The week would culminate in Rodgers turning the shotgun on his own face. Miraculously, he survived.
The blast stripped Rodgers of his eyesight, his senses of smell and taste, and worst of all — his vanity. Even if he were to regain the means to fund his bygone dream world, he wouldn't be able to savor it.
Five years later, Rodgers feels as if he's putting the pieces of his life back together. He says only memories of the demons persist, and they scare him just enough to resist the urge to return to meth.
ment." she said.
"From that point math rehabilitation is no different than any other illegal drug."
Of the 1,000 patients who go through detox at Scruton's clinic annually, about 20 percent are meth addicts. The most severe cases of meth addiction are directed toward the clinic's impatient program.
The problem, Scruton said, is that Kansas' managed care funding only pays for up to 10 days of inpatient rehab.
"In that amount of time, there just isn't a whole lot you can do." she said.
Instead of relying on inpatient rehab, clinics like Scruton's do most of their work through reintegration — or halfway houses — which the state funds for up to a month.
Reintegration clients work during the day and attend Narcotics Anonymous or other counseling groups during the evenings. They also take one to five urine analyses each week.
"Reintegration is really strong because you're working on the client's addiction as well as their behavioral problems. Folks are out there working, dealing with day-to-day problems and, when they come home, we can help them budget money, pay their fines, do their legal work and improve their relationships with bosses, girlfriends, wives." she said.
Still, Scruton said, two-thirds of the clinic's meth addicts relapse.
Clinics that have only outpatient programs are much more limited in helping patients overcome meth. Christy Edwards, outpatient coordinator at the state-wide rehabilitation group DCCCA, said very few of her meth patients succeed on their first try. Or on their second and third tries.
"By the time they get in to meth, people are really into the drug culture." said Edwards, who works at DCCCA's Lawrence clinic. "Meth addicts relapse a lot sooner than others."
DCCCA's six- to eight-week outpatient program supports between 10 and 20 patients who voluntarily show up at the center every day for group counseling.
Edwards said the voluntary nature of the outpatient program is its biggest downfall. But, there's simply not enough funding for adequate inpatient rehab, she said.
— Luke Wazel contributed to this report.
— Edited by Leila Schultes
"We're getting more people doing self referrals which is encouraging," Edwards said, noting that such patients have better luck than patients on court referral. "I think people are becoming used to hearing about drugs and so they're more comfortable seeking help. There's not as much of a stigma as there was, say, in the '50s. More people need they need fewer and are ashamed to get it."
Meth or Life
- Today is the second day of a five-day series on methamphetamine. The complete version of this project will be available at www.kansan.com as each component is printed in the Kansan.
Monday Life or meth, overview
Yesterday Kitchens of meth, the drug's producers
Today Faces of meth, users
Tomorrow All methed up, the drug and the environment
Friday Fight to the meth,
Kansas legislators and law enforcers
All of the people named in this series are real individuals. However, some sources' last names have been withheld to protect their identity or at the request of prison officials.
This story is part of a joint effort by The Wichita Eagle and students and faculty of the University of Kansas School of Journalism. The project was funded by a grant from the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
---