Pubdate: Fri, 27 Aug 2004
Source: Campbell River Mirror (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 Campbell River Mirror
Contact:  http://www.campbellrivermirror.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1380
Author: Mary Rody-Ryburn
Note: Author is Oregon 911 Dispatcher for Washington County Sheriff's Office
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1197/a06.html

I HAVE WATCHED CRYSTAL METH RUIN LIVES

While on vacation visiting my parents (I grew up here) I read the Aug.
18 edition of your paper.

I'm writing regarding Alli Vail's article on Crystal Meth. I'm angered
that the article told me how the high is better and cheaper than
cocaine, yet two tiny paragraphs at the end was all that was said
about what it will do to the person and their community.

What was not mentioned is what it will do to your neighbourhood and
home, your family and friends. Meth will affect you personally and you
don't have to use it.

One meth lab in a neighbourhood will affect the property value of
every home. Meth labs are hazardous waste sites. Police and clean up
crews don protective "spaceman" suits before they will even enter the
house! (To protect them from the chemicals users willingly put in
their bodies-)

Meth lab homes can (and do) literally blow up, and if the home is
still inhabitable, it has to be stripped to bare studs and re-done.
The chemicals can contaminate soil in your neighbourhood (clandestine
chemical dumps,) not to mention the undesirable traffic it will expose
you and your children to.

Meth is the "poor man's cocaine."

Every single ingredient can be purchased in your town (or stolen which
will be another effect on Campbell River).

In 10 years of law enforcement experience, I have personally watched
it ruin peoples' lives. Including innocent victims of stolen mail,
identity theft and fraud that seems to go hand in hand with the "smart
and sexy euphoria" that meth gives.

Families are destroyed by out of control users that literally tear
homes apart and physically harm loved ones.

Meth ages its users at an alarmingly high rate. Mental and physical
degradation happens within a very short time of using, and it is
highly addictive. As for "bugs under the skin," this is the chemicals
escaping the body, in the form of bubbles on the skin which are then
picked at. Wounds and scabs are constant because the chemicals ooze
out of the sores.

I guarantee it will affect you. Please inform yourselves.

And to think it won't affect me is an ignorant approach to an epidemic
that will affect you.

Mary Rody-Ryburn, Forest Grove, Oregon 911 Dispatcher for Washington
County Sheriff's Office (and surrounding agencies).
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin