Pubdate: Sun, 02 Oct 2005
Source: Billings Gazette, The (MT)
Copyright: 2005 The Billings Gazette
Contact:  http://www.billingsgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/515
Author: Ed Kemmick, Gazette Staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

A NATIONAL HERO BREAKS METH CLICHE

Last March, Ashley Smith seemed like the perfect hero. She was the
widowed single mom in Atlanta who was held hostage in her own
apartment by an accused rapist who was fresh off a killing spree that
claimed four lives.

After seven long hours of talking to her kidnapper, Brian Nichols,
about her daughter, pancakes and the spiritual best-seller "The
Purpose- Driven Life," the plucky brunette persuaded Nichols to
surrender. Soon after the ordeal, Smith said she had told Nichols he
must have been sent to her apartment for a reason, that it might have
been his destiny to be caught so he could spread the word of God to
fellow prisoners.

That was the story we were all familiar with until last week, when
Smith's memoir, "Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta
Hostage Hero," was published. In the book, Smith admitted that she
offered Nichols more than spiritual succor. She also gave him some of
her crystal methamphetamine, also known as "ice."

Reinforcing the impression that we live in a world where the
boundaries between "reality TV" and what we are pleased to call "real
life" have disappeared, Smith went on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" the day
after her memoir was released to tell the Queen of Talk about her
tribulations. According to the Washington Post, Smith "is also hoping
for a television or movie deal so she can reach more people like her."

I don't think she'll have to hope very hard. There are probably a few
hundred scriptwriters raring to get started right now, at least those
who aren't working on scripts about post-Katrina New Orleans or
reality shows about ordinary citizens trapped in a domed stadium.

I don't want to make light of what happened to Smith. She must have
been in terror during those seven hours with Nichols, and her
addiction to meth is not funny. She told Oprah that she used to do
meth "every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Moving In Mysterious Ways

But it is hard to keep up with the weirdness surrounding this story.
When Smith appeared on Oprah's show, Rick Warren, the author of "The
Purpose-Driven Life," made a "surprise" appearance. He told the
audience that what happened to Smith proved that "you don't have to be
perfect to be used by God."

I guess you don't have to be perfect to boost sales of somebody else's
book, either. I wonder who will play Warren when "The Ashley Smith
Story" hits the small screen. And I wonder whether God thinks crystal
meth is an acceptable agent of spreading goodness.

I wish Smith and Oprah had talked about a truly important subject -
how you can't generalize about meth users. We all "know," don't we,
that meth addicts are gaunt, scary-looking criminals who would sell
their mothers to get another bag of crank?

The next time somebody tells you he can identify a meth user because
"they all" have bad skin, rotten teeth and sticklike figures, show
them a picture of Ashley Smith. It was unclear how long she used, but
it was long enough for her to have had her daughter taken away and
long enough for her to have spent time in a psychiatric hospital
because of her addiction.

She looked perfectly normal at the time of her ordeal with the
kidnapper. I don't remember anyone claiming, based on her appearance,
that she was using crank.

The most convincing detail I heard was Smith's explanation of why she
decided not to do any crank with Nichols. She said she hadn't done any
meth for 36 hours before being taken hostage and wouldn't do any with
her abductor.

"If the cops were going to bust in here and find me dead, they were
not going to find drugs in me when they did the autopsy," she said. "I
was not going to die tonight and stand before God, having done a bunch
of ice up my nose."

Everybody fighting a bad addiction is looking for a bolt of lighting,
some overwhelming reason to quit and get clean. Ashley Smith's
unlikely savior was a cold-blooded killer. For her, that was a
powerful message.

For anyone else trying to find meaning in this strange tale, best of
luck.
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