Pubdate: Fri, 26 Nov 2004
Source: Albert Lea Tribune (MN)
Copyright: 2004 Albert Lea Tribune Inc.
Contact:  http://www.albertleatribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3521
Author: Ann Austin, Tribune staff writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

A FATHER FIGHTS TO RECLAIM HIS DAUGHTER FROM METH ADDICTION

"She was on her way to having a great life," said Conrad Petersen, the 
father of "Michelle," a meth addict.

Michelle was a high school teacher in Arizona, recently married and the 
mother of a young boy. "Basically everything was going great," said 
Petersen. Ironically enough, it was at a school function where she was 
offered methamphetamine for the first time, about two years ago.

The straight-A student who only smoked and drank in moderation, was quickly 
pulled in to the lifestyle of an addict. "It was almost instantaneous. She 
started on this down-hill drive," Petersen said. Any time she and her 
husband, "Paul" would go out, she would look for meth. Eventually Paul 
asked for a divorce. He never approved of her use of drugs and her 
addiction had come to the point where he couldn't live with her anymore.

Petersen heard of the divorce and decided to fly down from Hollandale, 
Minn. to see his daughter. He was astonished at what he found.

Michelle and Paul, whose real names have been protected, had built a 
brand-new house in a nice community; it wasn't even six months old. "There 
was garbage everywhere," Petersen said. The garage door was hanging halfway 
off, the front door looked like it had been broken in several times. Inside 
the house, Petersen found his grandson, "Michael," (real name has also been 
protected) with a blanket wrapped around him, only his face was showing. A 
jar of peanut butter had been licked clean beside the boy, there was no 
other food in the house. More trash was strewn inside all the rooms, black 
bugs filled the sink, holes in the walls and cat feces in the carpet. 
Electricity had been shut off and it was about 115 degree inside. "The 
house was completely destroyed," he said.

A search for his daughter found her asleep on a bed, completely passed out. 
When Petersen woke her and asked what happened to her home, she acted like 
nothing was wrong. "This was a girl that was clean as clean can be, 
before," he said.

Michelle told him she had money and a job, but Petersen later found out 
that she had been fired from her teaching job and had applied for and 
received a grant for $2500 by claiming she was returning to school for her 
master's degree.

"Everything she was saying was a lie," he said.

Petersen stayed in the area for a while and found out from local law 
enforcement that his daughter had 20 felony charges and was well-known as 
being a trouble-maker, all just six months after her first hit of meth. One 
of the officers told Petersen how Michelle acted when he pulled her over 
for a broken tail light. "The police officer thought she was insane. He'd 
never seen anybody so wild and crazy. She was out of control completely." 
Michelle swore at the officer and accused him of being out to get her.

"This just wasn't the person that I'd known," Petersen said. "It's not the 
house and the husband; the person was gone. My daughter was gone. The 
person that I had known was not there. It was awful."

Petersen contacted his ex-wife, who also lived in Arizona, and they took 
Michael out of the area. He is now in the custody of Paul. "The thing that 
amazed me the most was that my daughter didn't care," he said.

But Michelle said she wanted to stop using and was enrolled iinto a 
treatment center. It didn't last. Two days later she was home again, to a 
house that was being foreclosed on and no car. She ended up living 
underneath an culvert with other meth-users. "She had nothing left," 
Petersen said.

"There was no reasoning for what she did. She did things that were so out 
of character and made no sense.

"She was someone who could care less about life. Nothing else mattered but 
the next place she could get crystal meth.

"All she did was hate, she was full of hate."

Michelle was physically different, with large sores on her face and body 
that she attributed to a rash. She was very thin, about 90 pounds and her 
hair was matted and straw-like, as if she hadn't washed it for a long time. 
Petersen believed she was doing meth almost constantly and was always 
sniffling, but said she had a cold.

"I didn't want to touch her. I didn't want to hug her goodbye," he said.

Her attitude grew worse. Petersen had traveled back to Minnesota and 
Michelle would call him in the middle of the night begging for money, 
sometimes threatening him she would have to get it some other way if he 
hesitated to agree. She threatened suicide 10 times, he said. He sent her 
money, paid her electricity bill, bought her six cars (which she sold 
telling him they were junk), and sent her three house payments.

In the meantime, Petersen hired an attorney to handle Michelle's 20 
felonies. The attorney was able to decrease her sentence to two months in 
tent city, a camp in Arizona where people are treated as prisoners. "She 
came out and it wasn't even three months later and she was right back at 
it," he said.

The attorney had told him the worst thing to do was to send money, so after 
spending thousands and thousands of dollars, Petersen cut financial ties 
and gave his daughter an ultimatum. "You do whatever you want," he told 
her. "It's your choice." He told her she could talk to him as much as she 
wanted, but there would be no more money. It was hard for him to let her 
fend for herself, but some of her anger seemed to go away.

"When I quit telling her what to do I think it helped," he said.

Michelle called him, still asking for money, but Petersen stayed firm. 
Eventually he was able to get her into a halfway house after her parole 
officer urged that it was one of the best options. "She's been staying 
there and goes to work every day," he said. She works at a grocery store in 
customer service and wears an ankle bracelet at all times. The bracelet 
monitors if she spends time with another former user or if she deviates 
from her job or the halfway house. If Michelle is found using again, she 
will automatically serve 18 years in prison.

Michelle still denies she was or is chemically dependent, but she has begun 
to show signs of her old self. She wants to see Michael, and has been 
allowed to see him since she's been at the halfway house.

Petersen can even tell a difference over the phone. "She would talk very 
fast and with very short words. I couldn't understand her before. Now she 
speaks and I understand her. She's talking more clearly," he said.

"I'm hoping and praying that she's okay, but she's got a long way to go," 
Petersen said.

"I've been lied to so many times that I don't know what to do any more."

As a parent, Petersen said letting his daughter fend for herself was the 
hardest thing he's had to do, but it's the only way an addict will hit the 
bottom and be ready to recover. "It's important to let them you that you 
love them and you will be there," he said. But you can't give in to their 
begging. He told her: "I love you, I'm here, but you have to make those 
choices. There's nothing I can change. I can't tell you what to do anymore 
because you're not making sense to me."

Meth isn't worth it, Petersen said. "For any kids in high school today even 
considering doing crystal meth, they better take a long, long, long, long 
look at some of the things going on with these people. If that's what they 
choose for their life, there's something wrong. There's no way one hour of 
ecstacy is worth a life-time of hell," he said.
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